There is still time to be part of a research study program which records the level of radon gas within your home.

An ongoing research project known as 'Evict Radon' has been collecting data over a number of years to help researchers understand why the radon gas levels are so high in Western Canada, particularly in Alberta, and to bring awareness to the community about the correlation between high levels of exposure and the possibility of developing radon-induced lung cancer .

Dr. Aaron Goodarzi, Assistant Professor in the Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Oncology at the U of C is alsothe federally-appointed Canada Research Chair for Radiation Exposure Disease and the lead of Evict Radon. Goodarzi has spent the past few years invested into the why's and the what's that could be done to mitigate radon exposure in hopes to reduce the number of cancer-related cases.

If you are unaware, radon is a soil gas that comes from the breakdown of uranium and while the gas exists everywhere, research released a couple of years ago, continues to concern medical doctors, geologists, biologists, and a number of others that make up the team involved in the research of radon gas and its potential longterm danger. "Evict Radon continues to move ahead quite well. Since the publication of our first study, which was our 2017 study of southern Alberta, we have since expanded the project to cover the entire province of Alberta. Our original finding was that one in eight homes in the southern Alberta area/greater Calgary area exceeded Health Canada's maximum acceptable dose exposure limit which is 200 Bq/m3 of radon, so since that time we have expanded from what was about 2400 houses in that first study too well over 11,000 houses and, in fact, with the numbers coming in from this year we will probably be closer to 17,000 houses."

The findings that Dr. Goodarzi and members of the Evict Radon team are consolidating together is that numbers in rural areas, outside of the largest metropolitan centres such as Calgary, Edmonton, and Lethbridge, are trending much higher for radon than the big cities. "So for example, in Calgary, the city remains at one in eight houses exceeding Health Canada's maximum acceptable level, for rural southern Alberta, it is actually one in five. We have also seen some quite alarmingly high homes in southern Alberta and the Cochrane area, homes at 7,200 Bq/m3 that is pretty close to 60,000 dental x-rays equivalent of radiation each year."

Dr. Goodarzi goes on to say that by analyzing the entire province of Alberta and some of its neighbours, that if Alberta and the prairies were considered a country we would easily be in the top five of the most radon-exposed places on earth.

By gathering research the Evict Radon team has learned that surprisingly Edmonton homes are higher than those in Calgary and that newer properties contained higher levels than older ones. "That doesn't mean older properties are safe but newer properties are even higher. That may be one explanation as to why some rural Alberta areas are trending higher because the housing stock seems to be a bit newer than some of the older metropolitan centres as there has been a lot of growth if you look at the trends over the past few years."

While they are looking at a variety of 'x' factors as to why we have higher levels, the one consistent factor is correlated to the age of the home. "What we can say based on the data that we have at the moment is that the new home effect that we observed for radon in the greater Calgary area, that remains true for the entire province, so that finding has been repeated and seems to apply everywhere we have looked so far."

The hypothesis also shows that the bigger the square footage, as well as the home ceiling height, are likely factors. "The taller a house is the more powerful of a chimney effect it sort of has, the taller the chimney stack the more powerful the suction is on the ground. While these are two of the factors, I must stress, this is not the end of the story. There are many other factors that we are analyzing with regards to newer houses, rural versus urban, and north versus south. That is why we are putting out a special call this year for as many people as possible in rural Alberta and those north of Calgary to take part in the study, because only by understanding who's got the most and least radon in their house, can we start to build solutions for Alberta's radon problem."

While you may be wondering about other types of facilities, a first of its kind legislation was passed unanimously in late 2017. Bill 209, 'The Radon Awareness and Testing Act' is waiting for proclamation and once in effect will help not only with making radon awareness a priority but also work in conjunction with another piece of legislation that will mandate all childcare facilities within the province to test, and if readings are high, to mitigate exposure.

Although schools fall outside of the legislation, Dr. Goodarzi shares he is aware that in many parts of the province, School Board's are in fact systematically testing their portfolio of buildings for radon. "As for new schools, thankfully as of the end of 2015, all new buildings within Alberta are covered under the new build code that mandates that radon mitigation systems are roughed into the foundation, which should make it that fixing those buildings be very straight forward and cheap. While I can say that we have not radon tested 100% of our school stock, it is underway."

Testing and mitigation, unfortunately, is not covered and is the responsibility of the homeowner, shares Goodarzi, which could cost anywhere between $2000 to $3000 depending on where you live. "At this point in Alberta, we do not have any subsidies in place for radon mitigation but it is something I continue to lobby for."

The long-term hope for team Evict Radon is that through their research it will help motivate policymakers to not only make funds available for radon mitigation but also to reduce the statistics stating that one person a day is being diagnosed and told that they have radon-induced lung cancer.  

Encouraging all residents with children ages infant to teenager to test their property, Goodarzi says you can self-test, hire a company, or join in on their research project in which you can find the link HERE. "We do these at cost; the nice thing about what we do is while the individual gets their private radon reading for their house confidentially, it is identified and sent into large data sets that get sent back to cancer researchers. There is no other opportunity where an individual can radon test and help cancer research at this time."

While you only have up until January 31st to sign up for this year's study, Dr. Goodarzi encourages interested residents to still sign up for the waitlist which will open up later this fall.

The Canadian Prairie Radon Study with all data collected up until now (likely not including this year) is anticipated to be released sometime late this year.

READ MORE:

Research Shows Homeowners (Especially Cochranites) Should Test for Radon Gas