The 2024 Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Exposure in the Residential Buildings of Urban and Rural Communities indicates that radioactive radon exposure in Canada is rising and continues to be a critical public health concern.
There are an estimated 10.3 million Canadians living in houses with high radon, increasing their risk of developing lung cancer in the future. The report reveals nearly 18% of Canadian homes contain radon levels at or above 200 Bq/m3, the threshold at which Health Canada advises action to reduce indoor radon levels. This is more than double the 7% of households that were estimated to have radon levels at or above this limit in 2012.
Canada has among one of the highest rates of lung cancer globally, despite one of the lowest rates of tobacco smoking,
The inspector for a house I had did the post work inspection on a radon mitigation install. That’s how permits often work. You buy the permit from the local government, the work is done, and they send an inspector out to say whether or not the work has been done right.
The inspector didn’t know what radon was, stating he’d never seen anything like what we’d had installed before. The prior house owners didn’t know what radon was. My realtor stated most people think radon is made up. By whom and for what neither of us could figure out.
The inspector who doesn’t know what a radon system is had been doing mass approvals for new construction SFHs in that area. He approved the radon system in that house, stating: “I don’t know what it is but it sure looks like it’s been built well.”
