It was a case of being safe rather than sorry.
With mounting evidence in regard to the prevalence of radon in the Foothills, we were already leaning toward doing some testing in our home when we had the sump pump serviced earlier this year.
After lifting the hatch and stirring things up down below, the technician declared that radon levels were high and that we should have mitigation equipment installed. Coincidentally, his company could do the work. Did we want to book an appointment?
I don’t know a lot about radon, but I do know that testing should really be done over an extended period, so we enlisted the services of another company, placing a device in our basement and dutifully jotted down the numbers on a weekly basis for about three months.
We were consistently below the 200 Bq/m³ threshold at which Health Canada advises action be taken to reduce indoor radon levels, but close enough to that benchmark to cause us concern. The company certainly didn’t push, but we eventually decided to have the mitigation equipment installed for our peace of mind. It probably didn’t hurt the property value either.
The installation took the better part of a day and cost a couple grand, and within a week the readings had dropped significantly. I’m not sure whether we absolutely had to have the work done, but I can tell you there’s a certain level of comfort watching a movie in the basement knowing that radon levels are 30 Bq/m³ rather than 150 Bq/m³ or higher.
A recently-released report, the 2024 Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Exposure in the Residential Buildings of Urban and Rural Communities, found that Canadians are among the most highly radon-exposed people on Earth, with those of us in the Foothills having the dubious distinction of leading the way.
Both Okotoks and High River are on a list of municipalities where at least one-quarter to one-half of residences contain radon at or above 200 Bq/m³, which is that threshold where mitigation is advised.
Radon is an invisible bogeyman, an odourless and colourless radioactive gas that creates genetic mutations in the lungs that can lead to cancer. It’s easy to ignore the potential dangers because you’re blissfully unaware of its existence unless you undertake testing.
But ignore it at your peril.
Experts say it’s no coincidence that Canada’s lung cancer rates are high, even though our smoking rates are low. That’s because of the alarmingly high radon exposure across this country, where almost 20 per cent of Canadian homes contain levels at or above 200 Bq/m³.
The good news, if you want to call it that, is that we can do something to reduce our risks. Installing mitigation equipment isn’t cheap, but not doing so begs the question: What price do you put on your health and the health of your family?
I’m not trying to shill for the mitigation companies because I suspect they have more than enough work these days, but when 40 per cent of lung cancer cases in Canada today aren’t smoking-related, it serves as a pretty big wake up call.