Radon is the #1 cause of lung cancer in non-smokers and second leading cause in smokers.
This smelless gas comes out of the ground and into our homes. Luckily on Vancouver Island we have very low radon gas emissions. On the map below green is good! Green shows less than 1% have radon gas at a dangerous level. The rest of BC is notso lucky. That is one more advantage to living on the rock!
Source: https://bccdc.shinyapps.io/bcradonmap/
Recently the Government of Canada sent out a postcard discusing the dangers of radon gas and suggested purchasing a test kit for your home.
I ordered our test kit through the BC Lung Association (link here), paid $29.99 for the kit, $12.00 for shipping and $5.04 tax for a total of $47.03. It arrived in 5 days and now we are setting up the test kit in the crawl space where it will sit, undisturbed for three months. Once the necessary time has ellapsed, we will pack it up and send it off to be analysed. I should be able to share the results of our test in the March or April newsletter.
I spoke with a local home inspector, James Robinson, of Wave Home Inspection Ltd. He used to live in Calgary, which has a lot of Radon, and he advised that if there is a dangerous amount of Radon it is quite easy to remediate and make your home safe. That made me feel better.
Regardless, I will update you when I get my results, and if you live outside the green area on the map, I recommend that you order a Radon test. Lung Cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in Canada. Let’s do what we can to change this statistic.