While 10% of Canadians who tested for radon found it was a problem in their home, only 56% had ever heard of the naturally occurring radioactive gas — the country's leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers.
Ten per cent of people who tested for radon in the past decade have found the radioactive gas in their homes, according to a new survey from Statistics Canada.
Radon surveys carried out roughly a decade ago show that in B.C., the percentage of homes with high radon levels ranges from nearly 30 per cent in the Kootenay-Boundary region to under one per cent on Vancouver Island. Once trapped inside, it’s inhaled into the lungs where the radioactive gas bombards your cells, triggering tumour genesis — the spark that starts the development of cancer.
Every year, the 100 Test Kit Radon Challenge calls on towns and cities across Canada to add data points to often outdated maps showing the prevalence of the naturally occurring gas. “Health Canada has been banging this drum of getting people to test for a while, but this kind of targeted community-level testing to catch what radon is doing is really getting the ball rolling, getting people engaged and involved,” Nicol said.
It’s not just people’s private dwellings that are at risk. Radon has been found in public buildings, hospitals and schools.
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