Anchorage student wins national radon poster contest

An Anchorage elementary school student won first place in the 2022 National Radon Poster Contest. 

Luciana Liu attends O’Malley Elementary School. Her poster depicted an evil-looking “Queen Radonia of Radon” and a radon test kit as the avenging super heroine. The national contest, open to students between 9 and 14, awards a $1,000 prize. The contest is held each year across the nation to raise awareness of radon gas, the second-leading cause of lung cancer. 

Liu is the first Alaskan to win the contest, which attracts thousands of entrants every year, according to Jennifer Athey, a geologist with the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys.  

In honor of Liu’s award, the Alaska Radon Program will take requests for free radon test kits (one per residence) through the end of February, while supplies last. More information about radon and radon testing is available online.

The Alaska Radon Program is funded by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s Division of Air Quality. The University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service and the state DGGS, part of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, implement the grant.

For more information, contact Athey at 907-451-5028 and jennifer.athey@alaska.gov, or Art Nash at the Alaska Radon Hotline, 1-800-478-8324.

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