One in six homes tested in Western Canada had dangerously high levels of radon gas.

A group of researchers is trying to figure out how radon is getting in.

Canada Research Chair for Radiation Exposure Disease, Dr. Aaron Goodarzi, explains that radon is radioactive and is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers and the second leading cause overall.

Saskatchewan and most of the Prairies are exceptionally high for radon compared to the rest of the world.

Goodarzi says we are second highest next to Poland, but it’s close.

It’s not known at this point what is causing the radon to seep in to the homes.

You might think more older homes test positive for radon, but that’s not so.

Early research indicates larger, newer homes with higher ceilings and where the windows are never opened seem to correlate with high radon, but Goodarzi says that doesn’t mean radon can’t be found in older homes.

That’s where a national research project comes in.

The idea is to buy an at-cost radon detector from the Evict Radon site, test your site and fill in the survey so scientists can hone in on what is considered a man-made situation.

You can click on the link

Goodarzi says he has seen houses in the Prairies with radiation so high that the residents inside are getting the 5 year maximum limit of radiation exposure for an atomic worker every 3 weeks. He adds that Regina’s radon numbers are dramatically higher than other cities like Saskatoon, Edmonton and Calgary.

There is hope if you find radon in your home. There are ways to mitigate the radon from seeping in, which may be a simple fix like making a sump pump air tight or something more involved which Goodarzi says would cost about the same as a new Smart TV.