Radon levels in the new canadian houses is 467% higher than in Sweden
Forty years after Canadian and Swedish homes were found to have comparable levels of radon gas, a new University of Calgary study suggests radon levels in recent builds in Canada now far exceed their Swedish counterparts — by 467 per cent.
Inhalation of the radioactive gas is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers, and about 3,200 Canadians die from exposure each year, according to Health Canada.
And without intervention, say the team of cancer researchers and Canadian architects behind the U of C study, the average radon level of a new Canadian home will increase another 25 per cent over current levels by 2050.
Those levels are already the third-highest in the world.
"In most regions, [Canadian radon] has gone up, while Swedish radon has systematically gone down," said Aaron Goodarzi, an associate professor at the University of Calgary's Cumming School of Medicine.
And now, the researchers are trying to find out why.
"It is probably a complicated mergence of just the way we as Canadians build our houses, the way we heat our houses — which is actually quite different from the way the Swedes do it — as well as the uniqueness about Canadian behaviour," Goodarzi said.
Source: CBC, Canada
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