this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
67 points (100.0% liked)

Canada

7204 readers
350 users here now

What's going on Canada?



Communities


🍁 Meta


🗺️ Provinces / Territories


🏙️ Cities / Local Communities


🏒 SportsHockey

Football (NFL)

  • List of All Teams: unknown

Football (CFL)

  • List of All Teams: unknown

Baseball

Basketball

Soccer


💻 Universities


💵 Finance / Shopping


🗣️ Politics


🍁 Social and Culture


Rules

Reminder that the rules for lemmy.ca also apply here. See the sidebar on the homepage:

https://lemmy.ca


founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer in Canada for nonsmokers, as the radioactive gas can build up to hazardous levels indoors.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one 11 points 1 year ago (13 children)

Wait, so the radon is just leaking out of the earth and into your home?

Is this a canada specific issue due to the regional soil composition? Or is this a risk globally?

[–] AnotherDirtyAnglo@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Most parts of eastern Canada have comparatively high levels of Uranium in the ground - the radioactive decay process turns Uranium into Radon, which finds its way into buildings, and collects in basements because it's heavier than air. It's been made worse by the whole "R2000" building standard which means homes are practically air tight.

The worst part is that federal and provincial building codes don't make the installation of radon remediation equipment standard -- and it costs practically nothing to install at construction time -- whereas cutting trenches in your foundation to install PVC pipe is extraordinarily disruptive.

load more comments (12 replies)