WITH reference to the scary letter by Marion White (‘We’ve had a radon alert’, June 28), I would like to reassure readers that the radon level taken from the HPA-RPD-033 indicative Atlas of Radon in England and Wales shows that the radon gas level, itself a worldwide natural gas, in the Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch, is still among the lowest in the country.

The letter quotes Dr Marvin Resinkoff, of Radioactive Waste Management USA, who asserted that the radon gas level coming from the Marcellus Shale was 70 times the average of natural gas fields in the US and that the exit of the gas into New York homes would cause 30,000 cancer lung deaths. His findings were challenged in an independent assessment by the FERC undertaken by Dr Lynn Anspaugh, a leading authority on radiation dosimetry, who concluded that Dr Martin Resinkoff had undertaken no actual readings of the pipeline exit levels which were found to be 150 times lower that Dr Resinkoff’s estimate.

It’s all too easy to start scare stories and all too difficult once started to stop them.

DOUG MILLS, Fraser Road, Poole