Roughly one in five residential buildings in Canada has high radon levels — a figure that’s more than doubled since the late 2000s — while radon-induced lung cancer kills an estimated 3,200 people each year, federal figures show.

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[–] veeesix@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Yep. We bought a test kit off of Amazon that gave us readings of 400+ Bqm on average which prompted me to buy a proper lab testable module. Months later my results came back and the area that was tested showed a bit over 330 +/- 60 Bqm, way past the upper limit of acceptable Radon levels.

I’ve got a guy coming in to install a fan, so we’ll see how that goes.

[–] non_burglar@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm in the same boat.

Does your province have any grants for installs? The grant process in BC is a nightmare.

[–] veeesix@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

We moved into a new build, so the builder is eating that cost as part of the Tarion program in Ontario, but we paid for the lab test. Thankfully our builder included a soil pipe as part of the new construction before the new building code update came into effect.

[–] sbv@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

Holy crap! 400 is wild. I'm glad the builder is covering the cost of the fan.

[–] puppinstuff@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

We got a radon fan put in a few years back. Went from 120-180 with the windows shut in winter down to 0-10 year round.

Not that expensive, just do it. My poor neighbor across the street died of lung cancer. He smoked too but we can’t be sure his risk factors weren’t compounded. Lots of houses on our street have TV rooms in basements.