November Is Radon Awareness Month – The First Step Is To Test

Jeff Green – with information from Health Canada and Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington Public Health | Nov 20, 2024

Radon is an invisible radioactive gas that causes lung cancer. In Canada, it is the second highest cause of lung cancer, after smoking.

It comes from the ground and is produced by the breakdown of the mineral uranium that occurs naturally in the soil. As uranium breaks down, it eventually releases radon. Radon is a gas, so it travels easily through the soil, working its way toward the surface.

When radon escapes into outdoor air, the concentrations are low (approximately 15 Bq/m3). However, radon also escapes into our homes wherever they’re in contact with the soil, finding its way in through cracks or around pipes and drains. Homes that are well sealed to keep the inhabitants warm in the winter, provide an opportunity for radon concentrations in those homes to build up.

There were surveys conducted in 2009 and 2010 to determine the prevalence of radon in different parts of Canada, and in the winter of 2018/2019, Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington Public Health (KFLAPH) conducted a more comprehensive study of our local region (with support from Frontenac News' readers) and determined that the prevalence of potentially dangerous levels of radon in KFL&A is high.

The danger level for radon according to Health Canada guidelines is 200 Becquerels per cubic metre (Becquerels are units used to measure levels of radioactivity) and 21% of the homes in the 2018/2019 study of 1047 homes, exceeded that level.

The World Health Organisation guidelines set the danger level of radon at 100 Becquerels per cubic metre, and 51% of the homes in the KFLAPH study exceeded that level.

Frontenac County, Lennox and Addington as well as Leeds, Grenville and Lanark Counties have some of the highest rates of radon at dangerous levels in Ontario, and Canada as a whole.

There are effective mitigations for high radon levels in homes, by drilling small holes in the foundation, and venting the radon buildup with a vaccum/fan system.

As part of their radon mitigation efforts, KFLAPH looked at each of Social Housing and Daycare facilities in Kingston and Frontenac County. Three per cent of the social housing facilities tested above the Canadian standard, and 4% of the daycare facilities had levels above the Canadian standard.

Mitigation efforts were successful in lowering those levels where they were high.

For homeowners, the first step is to test. The most effective test is a long term test that accumulates readings over 90 days or more, a winter heating season, and is then analysed.

The KFLAPH website provides a link to “Take Action on Radon” site that lists a number of companies that sell testing kits which include not only the small testing device to be located in ground floor rooms where high radon levels would have the greatest impact on health, but also an analysis and reporting service at the end of the testing period.

Mr. Radon is one of the companies listed, and its kit and testing service costs $73.45 plus return postage. Other Ontario companies can be found at www.takeactiononradon.ca/provinces/ontario/

KFLAPH will cover the cost of testing for families in the region where one of the family members has tested positive for lung cancer. For information about that program, go to www.takeactiononradon.ca/test-for-radon/radon-testing-program/.