Janet Whitehead, Coquitlamn BC
My name is Janet Whitehead, and I currently live in Coquitlam, BC. I previously had a career in interior design, and I currently provide administrative support for our family business.
I found out I had lung cancer after a visit
to my family doctor. I had a constant dry cough and breathlessness. He referred me for stress tests for my heart as I had never smoked or worked around people who did. The tests showed my heart was healthy. As the symptoms persisted, he sent me for an X-ray, which showed a tumour in the upper left lobe. Following a biopsy which was positive for cancer, I underwent surgery to remove the upper left lobe, part of the lower left lobe, and lymph nodes at Vancouver General Hospital. Three months later I had a second surgery on the right lung to remove two additional cancerous growths.
My cancer was radon-induced, caused by exposure to high levels of radon gas (which is radioactive) in the home we lived in for five years, in Ottawa. The Health Canada Radon Action Guideline for radon gas in your home is 200 Bq/m3 and the World Health Organization (WHO) guidance is even lower at 100 Bq/m3 . The WHO states “there is no level, below which, exposure to radon can be considered safe” which simply put, means there are no safe levels of radon.
My husband sent a radon test to the homes we had lived in Ottawa and Cornwall in Ontario. The Ottawa home tested extremely high for radon at 3,200 Bq/m3, equivalent to 32 times the WHO guideline and 16 times the Health Canada guidance. The current homeowners at the time were a family with three young children. The homeowner immediately had the home successfully mitigated to below 100 Bq/m3. I have been aware of radon since 2007, when my husband co-founded a business in Vancouver, whose goal is to raise public awareness and education about the health risks associated with exposure to radon and provide testing and mitigation solutions. The only way to know how much radon is in your home is to test, so please test your home today!
My lung cancer was caught early, and I made a full recovery. I continue to have CT scans every two years to monitor my lungs. The largest adjustment I’ve had to make is managing my pace to function with essentially one lung, while being active. I have a cough that never goes away, and I have asthma. External air quality affects me, so the smoke from forest fires affects my breathing significantly.
The public needs to be better informed about the dangers of radon gas, which is present in every indoor environment to some degree. Unless people test their homes for radon, they do not know if they, or their children and pets, are being exposed to this radioactive gas. All Canadians need to take this seriously, as radon gas is the second leading cause of lung cancer and radon-induced lung cancer is preventable.
The public health ministers, both provincial and federal, need to treat this major health risk with the seriousness it deserves. Most politicians don’t know about radon gas and that it is a major lung health risk across Canada. Schools and daycares also need to be tested. I would like to see a federal mandate for schools, daycares, and public businesses to require testing.
I would also like medical professionals at the general practitioner level to treat this seriously and learn about the dangers of radon exposure. Lung cancer due to radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer and more doctors need to be educated about this.
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My husband sent a radon test to the homes we had lived in Ottawa and Cornwall in Ontario. The Ottawa home tested extremely high for radon at 3,200 Bq/m3, equivalent to 32 times the WHO guideline and 16 times the Health Canada guidance. The current homeowners at the time were a family with three young children. The homeowner immediately had the home successfully mitigated to below 100 Bq/m3. I have been aware of radon since 2007, when my husband co-founded a business
in Vancouver, whose goal is to raise public awareness and education about the health risks associated with exposure to radon and provide testing and mitigation solutions. The only way to know how much radon is in your home is to test, so please test your home today!
My lung cancer was caught early, and
I made a full recovery. I continue to have
CT scans every two years to monitor my lungs. The largest adjustment I’ve had to make is managing my pace to function with essentially one lung, while being active. I have a cough that never goes away, and I have asthma. External air
quality affects me, so the smoke from forest fires affects my breathing significantly.
The public needs to be better informed about the dangers of radon gas, which is present in every indoor environment to some degree. Unless people test their homes for radon, they do not know if they, or their children and pets, are being exposed to this radioactive gas. All Canadians need to take this seriously, as radon gas is the second leading cause of lung cancer and radon-induced lung cancer is preventable.
The public health ministers, both provincial and federal, need to treat this major health risk with the seriousness it deserves. Most politicians don’t know about radon gas and that it is a major lung health risk across Canada. Schools and daycares also need to be tested. I would like to see a federal mandate for schools, day- cares, and public businesses to require testing.
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I would also like medical professionals at the general practitioner level to treat this seriously and learn about the dangers of radon exposure. Lung cancer due to radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer and more doctors need to be educated about this.