A non-profit housing organization is taking steps to ensure the safety of its tenants.
The Vernon Native Housing Society has purchased 22 radon test kits through the B.C. Lung Association’s RadonAware program.
“We want to ensure tenants living in our buildings are protected from unnecessary radon-related lung cancer risk,” said Karen Gerein, VNHS general manager.
“We know Vernon has indoor radon levels higher than what is considered safe by Health Canada standards and we want to ensure our residents are safe.”
Radon is responsible for as much as 16 percent of lung cancer, and 3,200 lung cancer deaths, in Canada each year, according to the BCLA.
“The VNHS has 22 buildings under its umbrella. We intend to radon test them all this fall and winter,” said Gerein.
James Verhuel, building maintenance manager, will soon be certified to install a radon reduction system himself.
“We certainly hope our buildings’ test results come back below the Health Canada safety guideline, but should they be high, we’ll be prepared to fix the problem,” he said.
For information on radon, visit radonaware.ca.
“It makes a lot of sense for larger housing providers like the VNHS to train their own staff to solve radon problems,” said Britt Swoveland, BCLA RadonAware manager.
