No one wants to imagine their home could threaten their health, but when radon seeps in, that’s exactly what happens.
This naturally occurring gas is released from the ground as the uranium in soil and rock breaks down. It isn’t a health concern when it’s diluted in the air, or if someone’s home has a radon mitigation system to safely funnel the gas outside.
Radon-induced lung cancer kills an estimated 3,200 Canadians each year, and lung cancer, in general, remains the deadliest type of cancer in Canada, even as smoking rates have dropped dramatically in recent decades.
Yet radon isn’t included in cancer screening criteria since — as Blake says — there’s no existing test to prove that someone has had dangerous, long-term exposure.
A group of cross-Canada scientists are now hoping to change that, by developing innovative ways to test for radon exposure using something most of us throw away: toenail clippings.
I had zero idea about it until a plumber I called in casually mentioned that I should get a test. My house used to have 10 times the safe* limit that Health Canada recommends.
I now have a radon system in my house
- there is no safe limit, but they said there’s no need to do anything if it’s under 100 Becquerels per cubic metre. Mine was 1000
Did you do a home test, or did you hire someone?
I bought a test that hung in my basement for 3 months near where I work, and then I dropped it in the mail to a lab in Massachusetts. Shortly after that they sent me an email with a link to the results
If you have a link to the test kit you used, I’d appreciate it!
This is the one I used, but it’s no longer available:
If you search for “radon test kit” you can find them.
Also, I know Home Depot sells them… they’re about $50 in both places
Canadian Tire sells radon test kits and monitors. Other retailers will carry it too.
Thank you!
There’s far too little done to warn people about the dangers of radon.
We build basements, including living spaces, in areas that have high radon concentration, and nobody is informed of the dangers. (Southern Ontario, I’m looking at you.)
Southeastern Ontario here. It’s why I bought an AirThings detector and connected it to Home Assistant.
This is the way
Nice.
We didn’t even know it existed when I lived there, let alone have anything like that. There should be a PSA campaign. Unless there already is/was.
In Western quebec, along the Ottawa River, we have a citizens group that is working hard to get the word out about radon testing. Our local government has tested all of the schools, and is putting radon detectors into libraries so people can borrow them and test their houses.
Some municipalities in Quebec are requiring that radon remediation be done on any new house that is built, because it’s significantly cheaper than retrofitting it.
Even so, the retrofitting is only a few thousand dollars, and I believe that the Canadian Cancer society will pay for half of that.
I live in an area that can have high radon levels, but haven’t worried about it too much because my old house has a vented basement/crawlspace that leaks air like a sieve. It’s really with modern construction, that seals houses up tight for energy efficiency, that it becomes a bigger problem.
I think it being an emerging issue may also be part of why it’s not screened for yet.
(It’s also important to keep all this stuff in mind when doing renovations, since they can change the way the building works as a system. Having recently bricked up my crawlspace vents, this post reminds me that I should do a radon test…)
