High radon gas levels were responsible for two deaths from cancer in Co Kerry, the Dáil was told.
Mr Jimmy Deenihan (FG, Kerry North) said that the house had radon concentrations of about 49,000 becquerels, which was almost 250 times higher than the national reference level and one of the highest recorded in Europe.
"The householder's wife had died five years earlier from lung cancer and in 2002 the householder was diagnosed with lung cancer," he added.
"As both people were young, healthy and non-smokers, a medical expert advised them to have their home tested for radon gas. Last November, the householder died. He said publicly that radon was the cause of his wife's death, and no doubt it was the cause of his own death."
Mr Deenihan said a radon expert likened exposure to one day's radon in the household to one week's exposure to the radioactive plant in Sellafield.
"Along a one-mile stretch of road, which includes this household, nine people, many middle-aged and younger, have died from cancer over the past decade," Mr Deenihan added.
"This should surely be enough for the Departments of the Environment and Health to take appropriate and urgent action to deal with this problem."
Mr Deenihan said that the extraordinarily high levels of radon gas in the Castleisland-Tralee-Fenit areas of the county were due to underlying karstic limestone overlaid by shale, known to contain high uranium concentration levels.
Karstic limestone contains underground caves and streams which facilitated the movement and accumulation of radon gas.
There was a need to carry out tests in all schools in the area, said Mr Deenihan.
In a 1999 survey, 22 per cent of schools in Kerry were found to have radon levels over the recommended level.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Roche, said that the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) had sent out 2,500 letters to households in the Castleisland area.
A total of 418 householders had requested radon measurements, and results available for 384 of those had indicated that 54 houses, or 14 per cent, exceeded the national reference level of 200 becquerels per cubic metre.
He added that in all cases, where concentration levels were in excess of the national reference level, the RPII would have advised the householder to consider undertaking radon remediation work.
Mr Roche said a further 90 local authorities in the area were measured for radon by Kerry County Council, but none was found to have concentrations in excess of the national reference level.
"These follow-up radon measurements in houses in the area indicate that the exceptionally high radon concentration levels found in the house in Castleisland have not been replicated generally to date in other houses in the area," he added.
