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should we be testing our homes for radon?

the cancer-causing gas can be found in one in every six canadian homes.

by palea moher

nov 23 2020

4 minute read

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should we be testing our homes for radon?

with more of us working from home, some experts are worrying about radon exposure. getty

as canadians spend more time at home during the covid-19 pandemic, the federal government is urging us to test our houses for radon but won’t help us pay for it. invisible, colourless, odourless and tasteless, radon is the leading cause of lung cancer for non-smokers.

kelley bush, the manager of radon education and awareness at the federal government’s health canada, notes that radon causes more deaths every year than motor vehicle accidents in canada. “you wear a seatbelt every time you get in a car. why wouldn’t you test your home for radon?”

radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that comes from the breakdown of uranium in the ground. outdoors, this gas is in such low levels that it is harmless. however, indoors, it can reach cancer-causing levels.

bush’s team recognizes the increased risk of radon exposure during the pandemic; they recently mailed 1.6 million information postcards to people living in areas with a greater chance of having high radon urging them to test their homes. these areas are spread throughout every province and territory in canada except nunavut.

she also acknowledges that testing for radon alone won’t solve the problem, citing studies that have shown that up to half of all people who know their houses have high radon levels don’t, or can’t, do anything about it.

one in six homes are estimated to have high levels of radon, and the only way to know is to test. you can buy test kits from most hardware stores for about $50, and some public libraries have ones you can borrow for free.

if high levels are found, you will need a radon specialist to install a sub-slab depressurization system which involves inserting a pipe through the foundation floor slab and attaching a fan to draw the radon gas from below the home and release it into the outdoors where it is quickly diluted. at a cost of between $1,000 to $15,000, having such a system put in place can be unaffordable for many people, especially during a pandemic that has many canadians struggling with financial security.

randy jost of ottawa wants more people to know about the dangers of radon gas in our homes. a year ago, 62-year-old jost was shocked to be diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic lung cancer. as a non-smoker, neither he nor his healthcare team were expecting metastatic lung cancer to be the cause of his failing eyesight.

“it took them six months to figure it out,” he says. his healthcare team didn’t tell him that his cancer may have been caused by radon, but jost searched online for answers and discovered the link himself.

then he had his home tested.

“when we saw the report, our eyes kind of popped out of our heads,” he says. jost hired a specialist to fix the high radon levels, which cost him $3,000, an amount he acknowledges may be too costly for some people.

it’s not a unique story. every year, thousands of non-smokers are diagnosed with lung cancer. according to a 2020 report by the canadian cancer society, seven per cent of all lung cancer deaths and new cases are due to radon gas exposure. other studies have placed this rate at closer to 16 per cent of total lung cancer cases. lung cancer is particularly difficult to treat, with an average of 58 canadians dying from it every day.

radon risk on the rise

aaron goodarzi is a radiation exposure disease specialist and lead researcher of evict radon in edmonton, a non-profit organization dedicated to solving canada’s radon gas exposure problem. he says that the risk of radon exposure has gone up by 35 per cent during the pandemic. with more people working from home than ever before, and children learning remotely, it’s worth noting that children are more vulnerable to radon exposure.

“this is a public health crisis to come,” he says.

who should pay?

kathleen cooper, senior researcher at the canadian environmental law association, says the federal government should offer tax credits to help homeowners take steps to check their homes for the dangerous gas. a few years ago, she and her team spearheaded an effort to ask the federal government to offer radon mitigation tax credits, but it didn’t result in anything. it’s a huge problem, she says. “i’ve been banging my head against this brick wall for a long time.”

unfortunately for jost, he found out about the amount of radon in his home too late. still, he is happy to tell his story to help others.

“that’s what life on this planet is about, you know,” he says. “it’s just to make things better for others and for future generations.”

palea moher is a fellow in global journalism at the dalla lana school of public health at the university of toronto.

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should we be testing our homes for radon?

the cancer-causing gas can be found in one in every six canadian homes.

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should we be testing our homes for radon?

the cancer-causing gas can be found in one in every six canadian homes.

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