Radon gas dangers

You can’t see it, smell it, or taste it, but it’s the second leading cause of lung cancer in the country, killing over 3 000 Canadians every year.

It seeps in through the basement and you wont know if there are dangerous amounts in your home unless you test it.

Radon is a radioactive gas that occurs naturally when the uranium in soil and rock breaks down.

Jochen Bezner is a home inspector who tests for radon. He says there’s no real way of knowing which areas of a city have higher radon levels than others, even neighbours have different test results.

Breathing in this radioactive gas over a long period of time can lead to lung cancer. It’s the leading cause of the potentially fatal disease after smoking cigarettes.

Whether you live on the mountain or downtown, radon doesn’t discriminate. That’s why public health will be conducting a comprehensive study on the radioactive gas next year.

“We will be appealing to home owners across Hamilton in 2019 to consider joining the study that will look at having them test their home and kind of create a map of how radon levels are distributed across the city.” Matthew Lawson, Hamilton public health.

Hamilton public health is encouraging residents to buy a test online or at hardware stores, they cost about $35.