Purpose‐built rooms in the facility are entirely metal free to prevent background interference by metal contaminants, and allow the team to test toenail clipping samples for radioactive lead, revealing a person’ s radon exposure over time.
A major leap in cancer prevention
The Goodarzi team’ s discoveries are also helping to influence policy.
Building codes across Canada are poised to mandate that pro‐active radon reduction systems are installed in new residential constructions, which, if successful, has the potential to reduce radon by 40 per cent across the board and as much as 90 per cent in high‐exposure homes.
“ Doing this could be one of the single greatest lung cancer prevention things that has happened since tobacco smoking reduction,” says Goodarzi.
Looking ahead, Goodarzi wants to translate these insights into meaningful public health gains by the 2030s, supported by his international team of collaborators.
“ No one lab, no one human, is ever going to be able to do this kind of stuff,” he says.
Goodarzi acknowledges the world is changing quickly, but he is optimistic that there is a positive future ahead for the good that science can do for society, with an opportunity for Canada to attract the best and brightest researchers.
“ Canada is well positioned to perhaps be the steady hand on the tiller of the ship,” concludes Goodarzi.
Destination Canada will be highlighting Canada’ s life sciences sector and economic strengths for business events with global decision makers at Innovate Canada in Calgary, this May. To learn more about hosting your next life sciences meeting in Canada, visit businessevents. destinationcanada. com / en‐ca
Source: https:// www. cesse. org / index. php? option = com _ dailyplanetblog & view = entry & year = 2025 & month = 03 & d ay = 24 & id = 20: meet‐the‐canadian‐researcher‐cutting‐cancer‐risk‐one‐home‐at‐a‐time