The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is offering 1,000 free radon test kits as part of a campaign to make people more aware of the cancer-causing gas.
Public Health Inspector Phil Wong says some homes can be more susceptible to high levels of the dangerous gas than others.
"If you have crawl space or soil exposure or a lot of cracks in your older home foundation, that's how it's going to get in; you have a weaker home envelope, the pressure differential is different in your house, the soil gas will go in the easiest way possible into your house and that's where it will accumulate," says Wong.
Radon is a byproduct of uranium breakdown and is the second leading cause of lung cancer, behind smoking.
Testing from 2009 to 2011 shows 13.8% of homes in Windsor-Essex have higher than recommended levels of radon, ranking fourth highest among health units in Ontario. However, Wong says the region may not necessarily be suffering more from radon than other regions.
"It's not necessarily higher," says Wong. "When the test kits were actually delivered out by Health Canada some health units had more test kits delivered, so this [campaign] is going to help solidify that number or maybe lower it, we don't really know."
A radon test kit is seen at the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit launch of a radon awareness campaign on November 6, 2015. (Photo by Ricardo Veneza)
The only way to know if your home has high levels of radon — new or old — is to get it tested.
"It is a colourless, odourless gas. It's tasteless. It's radioactive. It's naturally occuring everywhere. Every home could have radon," says Wong.
The test kit needs to be left in the home for 90 days before being sent to a lab for results to be produced. Wong says if radon levels are high, fixing the problem can cost anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars.
The health unit is offering free radon test kits through its website. Test kits are also available at local hardware stores. For more information on the dangers of radon, click here.