Radon
Submitted to The Filipino Journal for publication December 20, 2018 I just found out ate’s ninang , Tita Shirley —one of my mom’s closest friends--just died. Shocked, I asked inay what from. Lung cancer. The first thing that ran through my head is, “But she’s not a smoker! And no one in her family (I don’t think…) is!” And then I ran other possibilities in my head, and so today I want to write about radon. November was Lung Cancer Awareness Month as well as Radon Action Month in Canada. Sadly, approximately 21,100 Canadians will die this year from lung cancer, and more than 3200 of those deaths are because of exposure to radon indoors. That’s 16% of lung cancer deaths attributable to radon (2009 Health Canada study). This represents >3200 deaths each year. In fact, radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in Canada, after smoking. Each year, over 600 deaths from lung cancer occur in the province. Manitoba’s lung cancer rates are close to the national a