Page 8 The Sun Bay Paper August 2, 2026 RUN CHICKEN LITTLE...RUN...THE SKY IS FULL OF RADON... I am editor-in-chief and owner of the Sun Bay Paper, a Fort Myers based paper, with a following of +/- 2.2 million people. Because the Buffalo News refuses to print facts instead of opinion, thereby potentially damaging the value of millions of homeowners concerning a serious situation, I decided to possibly set some “minds” at ease with a few real FACTS. With my background as an FBI Agent, Supervisor, with a bachelor’s degree in Material Science and Organic Chemistry, I was tasked with creating the EPA Environmental Crimes Task Force for Western New York beginning about 1978. During my tenure we made many arrests and executed numerous search warrants that I drew up with help from AUSA Littlefield. We closed Frontier Chemical, shut down numerous “mom and pop” disposal sites and executed search warrants on Hooker/ Olin, and many more, for documents. We searched a Department of Defense (DOD) site, the Little Valley Disposal Site for allegations of mishandling of EXTREMELY dangerous spent nuclear rods ...due to many “complaints/allegations” that the rods were not being properly disposed of! We needed Presidential as well as DOJ authority to proceed and we traveled to DC and pled our case... got it...with a hope and a prayer that the complaints were wrong ..and after many days and many experts, we declared they were/are doing more than they had to...to keep everybody safe and we were able to walk out and not be carried out in burn bags! I/ we commended the contractors on the job being done to better than “protection” called for all, to keep it up!!!! I was responsible for all 17 counties! This was a very successful, joint Task Force that included the FBI, DEC, EPA, DOD, AEC...and many, many more!! And we had to stick to the plan which was to enforce the Big 8 Laws...only! There were no Federal Laws regulating Radon gas... then! To this date there are no Federal Laws to my knowledge...there may be for NY State. I will not allow a self-declared reporter, wannabe scientist who has NO science background, who is looking for fame by creating imaginary facts she saw years ago by another knows nothing, who also has no science background whatsoever and is creating unnecessary, incorrect and self-serving reporting giving homeowners, specifically in Western New York, serious concern about everything. Now it’s a RADON...run... “Chicken Little the sky is falling” ...Chicken Little... radon poisoning. They tried to create another Love Canal by dragging nonsense about contamination of industrial waste on Cayuga Island that was declared clean many years ago by the task force, EPA and DEC. We got that turned around...and now Ms. Shuman has picked another target, radon, and the Buffalo News has opened themselves up to a liability by believing an ignorant, uneducated reporter in a field she should not have stepped into, in the blind! First, there are... NO “Federal Laws” regarding Radon... it’s handling, its disposal, concentrations...NONE! Why do you think that is? The EPA recommends a 4.0 picocuries per liter. One would believe if Radon were so dangerous there would be Federal laws? But there are none!? The States do what they want with Radon...so it is a big problem. Neither scientists nor the medical profession knows what a safe, allowable number is ...everybody guesses...assumes. The problem is Radon is tasteless, orderless, a gas that is the heaviest of them all, so it stays close to the earth... Is it dangerous? I imagine it is ...BUT...at what concentrations? The damn stuff is difficult to detect because it’s created by decaying Uranium. I don’t know what to do about it... unlike others ...I admit it! It’s created by decaying Uranium and other rocks, at a very, very slow pace and some become... undetectable ... Radon, GAS!? This is my opinion...the mathematical odds are in our favor ... the odds of Radon forming in your yard in dangerous concentrations are slim. It has to develop into gas ...then you must be exposed to it for a very long time, and it must be inhaled over a long time. There are over 400,000,000 people who could be exposed to Radon. That is all the “EXPERTS” claim. Radon (indirectly) claims 21,000 victims a year who come down with “Radon” exposure to the point it causes lung cancer and if they are exposed to the gas a long time...like miners! FACT is that the 21,000 number is a 2022 survey ...for miners...gold, coal, natural gas...etc. It was taken to try and nail down what a safe concentration is...for miners ...hundreds to thousands of feet below the earth and they STILL don’t know! My estimate can’t be much worse...let’s move the survey to the earth’s surface, where we live...and cut the deaths in half and make it 10,500... that’s probably closer! So when divide by 50 states we come up with 210 people “die” from Radon exposure. Let’s think out those numbers. I personally never met anybody who suffered with Radon, lung cancer and modern-day statements, in my opinion, are not facts. They are assumptions. They are estimates and I personally wish and hope for a way to see what is invisible, odorless, but sought after for other uses. I am more likely to get hit by a camel while crossing a street, my opinion! So, we look towards state laws. In October 1988, Congress enacted the Indoor Radon Abatement Act (EPA 1988), which established a longterm goal of indoor air as radon-free as the ambient, outside air. The law authorized funding for radon-related research activities at the state and federal levels. But there are still NO laws for disposal, handling, use of uranium or radon gas ...NO Crimes! Cont’d. on pg. 9
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