Children enrolled in the Library of Congress’s (LoC) Little Scholars child-development center may have been exposed to an unsafe level of a carcinogenic gas, and their parents have yet to be notified.

While completing new LoC requirements for its reaccredidation process in January, the daycare center requested a radon test from the Public Health Service, Architect of the Capitol (AoC) spokeswoman Cynthia Snyder said.

“There were 33 tests taken and one of the readings was about 4.0,” Snyder said. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends that any test registering radon levels of more than 4 picocuries per liter (pCi/L) be repeated, according to Snyder. Last month, the Public Health Service retested the area and found the radon level to be 2.1 pCi/L.

The AoC failed to tell parents that the facility had undergone testing or that one test was initially above recommended levels.

“There’s no indication that there was a problem,” Snyder said. “If the second reading was above 4.0, that’s when parents would have been notified.”

Snyder said every room in the facility was tested for radon. The room that required an extra test was a restroom. Snyder was uncertain whether children use the restroom in question, but said that “all restrooms in the facility are available for use.”

Steve Collins, a radon program manager for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, recommended that a long-term test be completed. “Since you’ve got one [reading] above [the recommended EPA guideline] and one below, and it’s a daycare center, I would recommend a long-term test,” Collins said.

An employee with Inspect USA, a company that regularly conducts radon tests, recommended a third test be conducted “to be on the safe side,” given that the radon level was initially measured to be 4 pCi/L and that the area is one in which children congregate.

“I would definitely do a retest,” the employee said. “Definitely another short-term test and definitely a long-term test,” which takes between three and 12 months.

On Friday, an individual placed flyers on the facility’s fence to notify people entering the facility about the presence of radon, according to a second source familiar with the incident. AoC suspects the individual is an employee who was reprimanded and is awaiting disciplinary action, the source said.

The EPA’s recommended action level for homes is 4 pCi/L, said EPA spokesman Dave Ryan. “We also encourage people to consider fixing when the radon level is between 2 and 4 pCi/L. Minimizing your future risk of lung cancer is always a good idea.

“It’s important to know that EPA’s risk assessment for 20,000 radon-related lung cancer deaths annually was based on long-term exposure to about 1.25 pCi/L,” Ryan said. “There is significant risk even at relatively low levels of radon exposure.”

One source familiar with the incident said that parents should have been notified.

“There were samples taken at high readings,” said a source familiar with the testing who was granted anonymity based on fear of retaliation. “I’m sure if [parents] knew, they wouldn’t be letting their kids in there.”

The LoC operates Little Scholars, a child-development center for children ages 3 months to 5 years. There are currently 102 children enrolled in the program, which is housed at St. Cecilia’s on East Capitol Street S.E. Children of LoC and other legislative-branch employees are eligible to enroll in the program.

Acting Architect of the Capitol Steven Ayers was unaware of radon in the facility when contacted by The Hill yesterday.

“I’m not familiar with that,” Ayers said.

Radon is a radioactive gas that comes from the natural decay of uranium found in almost all soil. The gas rises through the ground into the air within buildings through cracks or holes in the foundation.

The EPA site said that children who have been exposed to radon may be at greater risk of developing cancer than adults.

“Children have been reported to have greater risk than adults of certain types of cancer from radiation,” the EPA website says, “but there are currently no conclusive data on whether children are at greater risk than adults from radon.”