20,000 people die each year in the United States from lung cancer caused by exposure to radon -- a preventable health hazard.

How much would it cost the U.S. government to save those lives? Let's estimate.

The population of the United States is about 300,000,000.

Based on the most recent U.S. census, the average family size is slightly more than 3 people.

Discounting apartment buildings, condominiums, townhouses, and other similar forms of housing (in which "per person" costs of radon testing and radon repairs are lower than in single houses), let's come to the assumption that every 3-person family in the United States lives in a single-family home.

That's 100,000,000 homes.

Since a short-term radon test kit has an average cost of $20, testing every home in the United States would cost $2,000,000,000.

Of the tested homes, roughly 7% would have a dangerous concentration of radon.

This means that of the 100,000,000 households in the U.S. about 7,000,000 would require some sort of repairs to lower the radon concentration to a safe level.

Radon repairs run a gamut from $500 to $2500. But let's assume a high standard cost of $2000, to be safe.

The cost of repairing each of these homes would add up to $14,000,000,000.

The combined cost of testing and repairing every home in the United States would therefore be $16,000,000,000.

Now, let's put this number in perspective.

$1,000,000,000 is the cost of one B-2 stealth bomber.

$16,400,000,000 is the NASA budget for next year.

$196,996,000,000 is the current cost of the Iraq war.

So, how much does it cost to save 20,000 lives?

16 stealth bombers, a year's work from NASA, or 8% of the Iraq war effort.