SOURCE Canadian Association of Radon Scientists and Technologists
INDOOR AIR QUALITY
Don’t write off
radon A report by Take Action on Radon (TAOR) reveals the overwhelming majority of communities which took part in its Radon Test Kit Challenge program are finding dangerous levels of radon are much more common than han Health Canada’s national estimate mate that only seven per cent of Canadian dian homes vels. have elevated radon levels.
A Canada-wide citizen science initiative conducted over the past three years has uncovered a startling trend: radon levels consistently above provincial and national estimates.
Figure 1 Distribution of test kits by province from 2019 to 2021.
“Our 2021 results paintt a much different picture than Health Canada’s summaries,” says Pam Warkentin, off TAOR. “Almost all of the communities we’vee worked with have seen radon levels which far ’s exceed Health Canada’s estimates.” Radon gas is a serious problem, as exposure ead to elevated levels can lead to lung cancer. “Radon gas is the ancer in leading cause of lung cancer u smoke the non-smokers, and if you combined risk is even higher. The only way to determine if your home has high levels of radon is to test. We encourage people in Canada to test their homes for radon as soon as possible and take action to reduce levels if necessary,” says Lynn Murad, senior specialist cancer prevention with the Canadian Cancer Society. In 2012, Health Canada released a report summarizing its CrossCanada Survey of Radon 176 58
M e c h a n i c a l
Concentration in Homes. This work, which measured radon in almost 14,000 homes, provided an estimate of the percentage of homes with radon levels above 200 Bq/m3 on the national, provincial and health region levels. Overall, Health Canada’s provincial
Technical Note A Becquerel is a unit that measures the amount of radiation given off per second. A Bq/m3 is a measurement of radioactive activity in a cubic metre of air.
B u s i n e s s
0 4 . 2 2
averages ranged from four per cent to 25 per cent, cent and their estimated national average was seven per cent. “I was shocked by our citizen science results,” says Warkentin. “Particularly as we’re seeing high levels across the country. Of the 43 communities we have tested so far, 39 communities are at or above Health Canada’s national estimate.” “Relying on provincial averages to address the radon problem
