Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers in Canada. Kristin Carroll, Regional Radiation Specialist with Health Canada, joined CTV Morning Live Edmonton to discuss how to test for radon levels in your home.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Cory Edel: A study last month found that nearly one in five Canadians live in a home with potentially dangerous levels of radon. November is Radon Action Month and Kristin has some ideas for you. It’s great to have you, because I think a lot of people, at least in our morning meeting, were a little surprised by this, and I think the general public was as well. Radon is a big problem. Why don’t you tell us about radon and where it comes from?

Kristin Carroll: It is a natural gas. It comes from the breakdown of uranium in the soil, then it can potentially enter your home through cracks, gaps along pipes and reach levels that can be dangerous. These high levels are the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers in Canada.

Cory: Wow. How many deaths per year could be attributed to possible radon?

Kristine: This represents approximately 3,000 deaths across Canada per year.

Cory: This is quite significant. I guess many people just don’t know that radon is leaking out of their basements and causing these problems?

Kristine: No, so we’re hoping to try to raise awareness about this and encourage Canadians to test their homes.

Cory: How do we do that?

Kristine: We recommend purchasing one of these small long-term test kits. You can buy them online at take action against radon.caand they will ship it to your home. All you have to do is unpack it and put it on a shelf. The hardest part is remembering where we put it after three months, so we can send it back to the lab. They will usually email you your results.

Cory: Where should we place it?

Kristine: We recommend placing them on the lowest habitable level of your home. If you have a basement or teenager’s bedroom in the basement, or if you use a family room, install it there. If you never use your basement, install it in your living room, for example.

Cory: If we discover that high levels of radon are entering our home, what is the solution now?

Kristine: We recommend hiring a professional certified through Canada’s National Radon Control Program. They will come and do an assessment of your home, but the most common solution is called “active soil depressurization.” It’s this little guy here. They will drill into your slab, create a ventilation point outside and attach a fan. Pretty simple, about a day’s work.

Cory: It’s not too bad. Something really cool is that if you don’t have it, but your house was built in 2015, or later, it’s already in rough condition.

Kristine: Yes, you will get a start of what this system looks like. The pipe that’s going to go under your foundation there, they just plug it up. This does nothing to combat radon, but if you test and your results are high, it will help reduce the cost of manufacturing the entire mitigation system.

Cory: So there are ways to mitigate it, but without always getting rid of it completely?

Kristine: Yes. Its efficiency is around 90 percent if you install one of these systems.

Cory: Is there an acceptable amount of radon we can live with?

Kristine: There are of course. Our indicative level is 200 becquerels per cubic meter. If your testing exceeds this threshold, we recommend that you take action and install one of these mitigation systems within a year. If you are below this threshold, retest in five to ten years or if you are making major renovations to your home.

Cory: Thank you for speaking with us about radon. For more information, please visit the Health Canada website, canada.ca/radon.