In September of last year Elizabeth Combs was looking forward to a new pool as workers began digging in the backyard of her Hollywood home.
The dig uncovered a surprising solid rock bed, something the pool company described as a geological anomaly. The excavators dug up large boulder-sized rocks that Combs thought both strange and beautiful. They were referred to by workers as “Iron Ore.” She made use of the rocks, arranging them around her yard, integrating them into the landscaping. However, shortly after the work began on the pool Combs began to fall ill.
At first Combs suspected there might be a mold, fungus, or bacteria in their “fixer-up-er” home, but the following month she tested the house for Radon using a home testing kit purchased at a local home improvement store. The test results came back positive, and she began to suspect she had radiation sickness. They had the home mitigated by a certified technician who added vent fans to reduce the build up of radon.
Combs was experiencing severe pain, her muscles hurt and even her skin and nails. She became sensitive to light and touch, had difficulty breathing, heart palpitations and extreme fatigue, Combs told The Bay Net. Then her hair began to fall out and her urine turned brown. She visited a doctor in the neurology department of Georgetown University. “I handwrote a will and kissed my husband and children goodbye,” Combs told The Bay Net. “I thought this is what it’s like to die.”
However, none of the results from the neurology department yielded conclusions, and Combs returned home without answers. Knowing she was very ill, Combs visited several specialists, for heart lung and kidney, each specialist finding problems but unable to make a connection, she recalls.
By December she was beginning to feel better. On December 18 the landscaper returned to finish the project and dug the yard for several days. By December 21 Combs was sick again, this time so too were her husband and three year old daughter.
The rocks adorning her landscaping took on more sinister than decorative connotations, as she and other family members became inexplicitly ill.
Combs began conducting research on the internet. “I found this ‘iron-ore’ contained uranium, one of the by-products of which is radium, of which one of the by-products is radon gas,” Combs told The Bay Net.
At the beginning of January Combs spent three days on the phone calling various departments, including the Environmental Protection Agency, which publishes advice and studies about the effects of radon. “It wasn’t until I called the local fire department [I got a response],” Combs told The Bay Net. Hollywood Volunteer Fire Department responded to her home within five minutes of her call.
The tests conducted that day showed a negative reading for radiation, according to Hollywood Fire Chief Dennis Brady, who was assisted by an expert from Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Plant. Combs was told there was radiation but it was consistent with
Combs maintained her conviction that the strange ailments had a connection to the rocks in her yard. She began in-depth research into radon and forged alliances with several scholars in the US and beyond who are studying radon.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, radon is a cancer-causing gas, which they estimate to cause about 21,000 lung cancer deaths per year (
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