For anyone interested, I live in the seton area and was getting a reading of 270 bequerels. I had Colin from Radonwest come out and am now getting around 30. I would highly recommend him/them. They are helpful and informative.
According to health canada, 16% of lung cancer deaths are attributed to radon exposure. That's about the equivalent of 25,480 deaths or almost the same as the number of prostate cancer deaths.
I don't work for any radon mitigation company but want to create awareness.
Cigarette smoking is the most common cause of lung cancer. Radon represents a far smaller risk for this disease, but it is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. Scientists estimate that 15,000 to 22,000 lung cancer deaths in the United States each year are related to radon.
Exposure to the combination of radon gas and cigarette smoke creates a greater risk of lung cancer than exposure to either factor alone. The majority of radon-related cancer deaths occur among smokers. However, it is estimated that more than 10 percent of radon-related cancer deaths occur among nonsmokers.
On average, 16% of lung cancer deaths are attributable to radon exposure in Canada. In 2006, an estimated 1,900 lung cancer deaths in Canada were due to radon exposure. Radon is the 2nd leading cause of lung cancer, after smoking.
Other than lung cancer, there is no evidence that radon exposure causes other harmful health effects such as any other form of cancer, respiratory diseases such as asthma, or symptoms such as persistent coughing or headaches.
Q. I am a smoker. Does radon affect me more than a non-smoker?
A. Yes. The risk from radon exposure for a smoker (including those exposed to second hand smoke) is much greater than for a non-smoker. For example, if you are a lifelong smoker but are not exposed to radon, your risk of getting lung cancer is one in ten. If you add exposure to a high level of radon, your risk becomes one in three. On the other hand, if you are a non-smoker, your lifetime lung cancer risk at the same high radon level is only one in twenty.
For anyone interested, I live in the seton area and was getting a reading of 270 bequerels. I had Colin from Radonwest come out and am now getting around 30. I would highly recommend him/them. They are helpful and informative.
According to health canada, 16% of lung cancer deaths are attributed to radon exposure. That's about the equivalent of 25,480 deaths or almost the same as the number of prostate cancer deaths.
I don't work for any radon mitigation company but want to create awareness.
Did your number drop because you were reading them wrong or did someone install an actual system to ventilate the radon out of your home?
I was talking about radon with an occupational safety guy this weekend. He said the reason people don't want to get their homes tested is if a test indicates high levels of radon (and they don't have to the money on-hand for re-mediation) it'll hurt the value of their home if they sell.
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Originally Posted by fotze
If this day gets you riled up, you obviously aren't numb to the disappointment yet to be a real fan.
The studies have not produced a definitive answer, primarily because the risk is likely to be very small at the low exposure encountered from most homes and because it is difficult to estimate radon exposures that people have received over their lifetimes. In addition, it is clear that far more lung cancers are caused by smoking than are caused by radon.[37]
Is there radon in your house? How much? In which rooms? How long have you lived there? How much time did you spend in which rooms? How much radon was in your previous residence? Residential radon studies are hampered by the near impossibility of quantifying an individual’s exposure over time. And most of the studies are flawed by the failure to correct for smoking. The risk of radon exposure to smokers is high; the risk to non-smokers is questionable. The way to reduce lung cancer deaths from radon is not to test everyone’s home and try to lower radon exposure – it is to get people to stop smoking. A 20% increase in risk of lung cancer from radon exposure (including smokers and non-smokers) must be put into perspective with the 2000% increase in risk from smoking.
I was talking about radon with an occupational safety guy this weekend. He said the reason people don't want to get their homes tested is if a test indicates high levels of radon (and they don't have to the money on-hand for re-mediation) it'll hurt the value of their home if they sell.
How much would something like that cost if you had an unfinished basement?
The study found that nowhere was free of dangerous levels of the gas.
My significant other saw some previous stories about radon and became concerned about our house. I told her it was fine but she insisted on getting a test done. Our test results came back last week and we are only 60bq/m3.
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