Georgia County Government - September 2008 - (Page 43)

mitigators is available from your county Extension office. “We are saving lives, by educating and motivating people to take action,” Chenhall said about the education program. “The bad news is radon causes lung cancer. The good news is that any radon problem can be fi xed.” The Georgia Radon Education Program is a partnership among the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences Cooperative Extension, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs and Southface Energy Institute. The partnership is funded by the EPA to educate Georgians on actions to take to protect themselves from the risk of developing lung cancer caused by the unwelcome entry of radon gas in our homes. ■ April Sorrow is a news editor for the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. CAES news editors Sharon Omahen and Faith Peppers also contributed to this article. County Officials Can Help Save Lives O ne of the most important roles a local official can play is that of “broker”; a communicator of critically important information and knowledge. When it comes to helping save the lives of those around you, in the case of lung cancer prevention, the role is a very simple one to play. The radon story is simple. Radon – a colorless, odorless gas – is a documented cause of lung cancer. The presence of radon gas in Georgia homes is also beyond dispute. The loop of understanding on behalf of Georgia residents, however, remains largely incomplete because people do not understand the relationship between the presence of radon in their homes and the threat of lung cancer. All too often, we fail to take action against threats to our health and well being until a ‘red flag’ is waving (maybe a noxious odor) or until a crisis occurs. Often, lives are lost or citizens’ health is unnecessarily compromised. In the battle against radon exposure, it does not have to come to this! Radon test kits are available for FREE from any county Cooperative Extension office. In five years, 22,000 kits have been distributed. That is equivalent to the number of homes in one mediumsized Georgia county. Millions of homes in Georgia remain untested. With the technology and resources available today, there is no reason for public health to continue to be threatened by exposure to radon. Help share the message. Encourage your local residents to take action today to protect the health and wellness of their families for years to come. – By Jeff Christie, ACCG Cooperative Extension Liaison Neighborhood power lines are built underground all the time. High-voltage lines are a different story. Opposition to a new transmission line can spark support for installing it underground. What most people underestimate about underground is its oversized price tag. A recent cost estimate for a 1.3-mile section of underground line in Oconee County, for instance, was $16 million. That would have been about $1,300 for every EMC customer in the county, but using overhead lines will keep residents from paying this cost. Underground construction raises key questions: Who pays? Who beneﬁts? Do you raise rates or raise taxes? Underground is sometimes a solution in crowded cities or in short spans, but $1 billion projects, like one in Connecticut, are not for Georgia. Help us keep electricity reliable and affordable. If you’re thinking underground, think it over. $1,000,000 per mile ,000 $10,000 le per mi The Power of Cooperation Building and maintaining high-voltage power lines and substations for Georgia’s electric cooperatives. 383573_Georgia.indd 1 SEPTEMBER 2008 5/20/08 7:50:37 www.accg.org 43 AM http://www.gatrans.com http://www.accg.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Georgia County Government - September 2008

Georgia County Government - September 2008 Contents President’s Message County Matters Cobb County: Quality of Life is Job No. 1 Innovative Transportation Financing in Georgia Drive Your Fleet into the Next Generation of Efficiency, Profits Spotlight: Georgia Technology Authority Media Productions GEMA News: Hurricane Season Could Cause Natural Gas Spike GDEcD News: Communities Receive Funds to Develop Tourism Assets Georgia’s Grand Old Courthouses: Upson County Extension News: Radon: Georgia’s Silent Danger Research Corner: Conserving Fuel Costs in Your County Staff News County Parade Index of Advertisers

Georgia County Government - September 2008

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