As a key research, policy and/or health industry stakeholder of the Evict Radon research initiative, I wanted to let you know that the latest Canadian radon study has now been published in Nature Publishing Group’s multidisciplinary journal Scientific Reports.
You can download a free copy of the article HERE.
You are among the first to be notified of its public release.
The key findings from this research are that:
1. Radon exposure in Canada is increasingly uniform across the year
We have found that the existing dogma – that radon is always highest during winter heating months no longer applies in the Canadian context. Indeed, nearly half of residences we examined showed consistent radon all year, and a quarter demonstrated higher radon levels in summer. We are working towards understanding why this is now.
2. Short-term radon test kits are not reliable
We find that short term radon testing has extremely limited predictive utility when a person wants to understand what their risks are from long term radon exposure, and – functionally speaking – provides an inconclusive result 58-99% of the time. The implications are likely to impact the home inspection industry, where adoption of short term testing in Canada has begun.
3. Our radon problem in Canada is, unfortunately, getting worse
We find a troubling, progressive increase in radon exposure within the modern residential environment in Canada. We show that the relative ‘modernity’ of residential environment strongly impacts radon exposure, with newer homes containing greater and greater radon.
4. We now know multiple property metrics that correlate with high / low radon
The variables that influence radon are: (i) year of construction, (ii) the building type, (iii) building size (square footage), (iv) ceiling height, (v) window opening behaviour. We also know that thermostat settings and the presence of basement plumbing do not influence radon.
5. Alberta and Saskatchewan are home to the 2nd most radon-exposed population on Earth
Of 11,727 residential long-term radon tests conducted between 2010-2018 in Alberta and Saskatchewan, 55% were ≥100Bq/m3 and 17.8% were ≥200Bq/m3, the maximum tolerated exposure limit for Canada. Comparison to global radon levels this region encompasses one of the most radon-exposed large populations mapped to date.
Please read the study for further details.
We will do a full press release on December 4-5th, 2019.
Evict Radon is now accepting participants from all across Canada, so please encourage your contacts to enroll in the research study and purchase an non-profit Evict Radon test kit (at cost) from our website www.evictradon.org.
New participants will be accepted until February 29th, 2020.
Please contact me if you have any questions!
Thank you,
Weston Jacques MAPC
Executive Director
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