Believing the home where she lives with her husband in Rocanville , Sask ., was safe , the pharmacist did nothing .
“ I just thought if it came back as a pass , then I can just forget about it .”
Then , in the summer of 2021 , the 55-year-old was diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer .
An avid runner and non-smoker , her initial reaction was disbelief .
“ Of all the cancers I thought I would get , this was on the bottom and [ it ] didn ’ t even cross my mind that I could get lung cancer ,” she says .
Following the diagnosis , as Burke cast around for how this happened to her , she learned something few Canadians know — the country ’ s radon guideline is twice that of the World Health Organization ( WHO ).
That disparity has created a false sense of security for millions of Canadians who are unwittingly breathing in dangerous radon levels that claim lives , an Investigative Journalism Bureau investigation has found .
Health Canada ’ s radon guideline is 200 Bq / m ³ while the WHO ’ s is 100 Bq / m ³. “ The use of 200 Bq / m ³ as an administrative action threshold in Canada is likely why a large percentage of people are being exposed to , in some cases , very high lifetime radiation doses from radon ,” says Aaron Goodarzi , a University of Calgary researcher and director of Evict
Radon , an organization of Canadian scientists and scholars focused on the nation ’ s radon issue .
“ They think — or are told — that they ’ re safe , but in fact , they ’ re not … ( The guideline is ) twice where people ’ s risk ( of lung cancer ) is clear based on the medical evidence .”
Up to a third of the roughly 42,000 homes in the ongoing Evict Radon National Study show radon levels below the Canadian guideline but above the WHO guideline . That translates into “ millions of people who are going to be exposed ” to enough radon to increase their risk of developing lung cancer , Goodarzi says .