High radon levels found in Health Canada tests across country

[laundry_queen]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/high-radon-levels-found-in-health-canada-tests-across-country-1.2662610

Posting this because recently a non-smoking relative was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Their house has basement bedrooms. Makes me wonder. I'll be testing our basement before we finish it (our bedrooms are on the second floor, so not overly concerned yet).

[arthritisR_US]

1. Good to know, thanks for posting! :) nt

[Warpy]

2. Radon wasn't a big problem before the oil shocks in the 70s

because old, leaky houses just had it come up through the living spaces and out, the concentration never really enough to make people sick. When heating oil got hideously expensive, people did all sorts of things to seal their houses up to prevent heat from being lost to the great outdoors, the radon with it.

Contributing to the problem in the better neighborhoods are those granite countertops, which also release radon gas.

We're just now starting to see the bump in lung cancer rates caused by trapped radon gas.

[laundry_queen]

3. I had no idea about granite

I'm very happy I refused to put granite in when I was building my new house, LOL. My house, btw, is a duplex, so not 'high end' but they are putting all kinds of 'luxury' finishes in these crappy homes to make them sell better. Although, I wouldn't say MY house is crappy - it's very energy efficient and was built with 'green' in mind (low VOC paint for example, tankless hot water, etc) but BECAUSE it's super energy efficient, I do get concerned about radon. My oldest daughter will have a bedroom in the basement when it is done, so I will for sure be testing for radon before she sleeps down there.

My relative that got cancer, they built an extremely energy efficient house for the time (back in the 80's) and very solid - all concrete - and put the bedrooms in the basement, so I keep thinking that has something to do with it. The rest of my family has poopoo'ed my feelings on this matter.

[Warpy]

4. It's probably a strong suspect if they live in the northeast US or much of Canada

Radon gas can be vented from basements, that's how houses in New England are being retrofitted. As long as the gas is vented, your daughter will probably be OK.

Funny, one of the first things discovered about why tobacco was so deadly was that the plants have an affinity for radon in the soil, taking it up and concentrating it. Every chemist I knew who knew what ionizing radiation did to the body either quit smoking on the spot or at least tried to. That was a couple of years before the Surgeon General's report on smoking came out.

[laundry_queen]

5. Interesting about tobacco

yeah, my relatives are in Canada, as am I.

The new recommendations are to test every 2 years, so even if we seem to be in the clear, I'll have to retest every couple of years. I heard the set up (venting, blocking) to get rid of the radon costs around $3000. I don't have that kind of money yet...but I'll put it aside when my basement is done, after I start back to work. You never know.