Radon In Alberta: The Invisible Gas In Your Home — And What You Can Do About It

There is a radioactive gas in your home right now. That's true of every home in Alberta — the only question is how much. Radon is invisible, has no smell and no taste, and it is the number one cause of lung cancer in Canadians who have never smoked. The Edmonton area sits in one of the most radon-exposed regions on Earth, and the only way to know your number is to test. Here's what radon actually is, why Alberta homes are especially at risk, and the straightforward steps that fix it.

What Is Radon, Exactly?

Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas. It forms underground when uranium in rock and soil slowly breaks down — uranium decays into radium, and radium decays into radon gas. Unlike its solid parents, radon is a gas, so it moves freely up through the ground and escapes into the air.

Outdoors, that's harmless: radon dilutes almost instantly to very low concentrations. The problem starts when it seeps into an enclosed space like a house. Indoors it can build up to levels hundreds of times higher than outside — and as it decays further, it produces radioactive particles that attach to dust, get inhaled, and lodge deep in the lungs, where they release DNA-damaging alpha radiation.

Why Alberta Is A Radon Hotspot

Radon exists everywhere in Canada, but the Prairies sit on geology that produces a lot of it. The 2024 Cross-Canada Radon Survey — led by the University of Calgary's Evict Radon national study with Health Canada — found that nearly 1 in 5 Canadian homes (17.8%) now test at or above Health Canada's guideline of 200 Bq/m³. That is more than double the estimate from just over a decade earlier.

The Prairie provinces have the highest average household radon in the country, and here at home the numbers are blunt: the average Edmonton-area home measures around 106 Bq/m³, and roughly 1 in 6 Edmonton-metro properties are at or above the 200 Bq/m³ action level. Communities across our service area — Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Leduc and Devon — all sit on the same radon-producing geology.

What Radon Does To Your Health

According to Health Canada, radon exposure is responsible for about 16% of all lung cancer deaths — more than 3,000 Canadians every year. It is the #1 cause of lung cancer in people who have never smoked, and the second leading cause overall after smoking. There are no early symptoms: no cough from the gas itself, no headaches, no warning. The risk builds silently over years of breathing it.

If you smoke, radon multiplies the risk

Radon and tobacco smoke are a dangerous combination — the two together multiply risk rather than simply adding it. Health Canada estimates a lifetime of exposure to elevated radon gives a non-smoker about a 1 in 20 chance of developing lung cancer. For a smoker with the same radon exposure, that jumps to roughly 1 in 3.

How Radon Gets Into Your Home

Your house acts like a slow vacuum on the soil beneath it. Warm indoor air rises and escapes out the upper levels — the "stack effect" — which pulls soil gas in through the lowest points of the building. In an Alberta winter, with the furnace running and the house sealed tight, that suction is at its strongest, which is exactly why radon levels are usually highest during the heating season.

Radon doesn't need much of an opening. Common entry points include:

• Cracks in the foundation walls and basement slab — even hairline shrinkage cracks
• Sump pits without a sealed lid
• Floor drains and the gravel bed beneath the slab
• Gaps around service penetrations — water lines, gas lines, electrical conduits
• Construction joints where the floor meets the wall
• Crawl spaces with exposed soil, and well water in rural properties

What The Numbers Mean

Radon is measured in becquerels per cubic metre (Bq/m³). Outdoors it sits around 15 Bq/m³ or lower — negligible. Health Canada's guideline says take action at 200 Bq/m³: fix within two years if you're between 200 and 600, and within one year if you're above 600. For context, the World Health Organization recommends acting in the 100–300 range, and the U.S. action level is roughly 148 Bq/m³ — so Canada's 200 is not a "safe" line, it's an action line. The Canadian Cancer Society notes there is no known safe level of radon; lower is always better.

Step One: Test Your Home (It's Cheap And Easy)

You cannot see, smell or estimate radon — a test is the only way to know. The good news: it's one of the cheapest pieces of health insurance you'll ever buy.

• Use a long-term test — at least 91 days. Radon levels swing hour to hour and season to season, so short tests can badly mislead. Health Canada recommends a minimum 3-month test.
• Test during the heating season. Fall and winter give the truest picture, because that's when the stack effect pulls in the most soil gas and windows stay shut. In Alberta, an October-to-January test is ideal.
• Place the detector in the lowest lived-in level — a basement bedroom, rec room or main-floor living area, not a closet or crawl space.
• Choose an alpha-track kit or a digital monitor. Mail-in alpha-track kits (typically $30–$60 including lab analysis) are available through Evict Radon and Take Action on Radon; digital monitors give continuous readings year-round.
• Or hire a pro. Measurement professionals certified under the Canadian National Radon Proficiency Program (C-NRPP) can test for you — often worth it for real-estate deals where time matters.

Step Two: If It's High, It Can Be Fixed — Reliably

Here's the genuinely reassuring part: radon mitigation is a solved problem. The standard fix is active soil depressurization (ASD) — a sealed pipe is installed through the basement slab into the gravel beneath, and a small continuously running fan draws the soil gas out and vents it safely above the roofline before it can enter the house. Health Canada notes this typically cuts radon levels by more than 80% — often well over 90% — for a cost in the same range as other common home repairs like replacing a furnace. Sealing sump lids, floor cracks and other entry points supports the system, and in Alberta, mitigation results have been excellent: local studies have seen homes drop from 500+ Bq/m³ to the low 30s.

Where Your HVAC System Fits In (Honest Answers)

We clean furnaces, ducts and dryer vents for a living, so let's be straight about what heating and ventilation equipment does and doesn't do for radon:

• Duct cleaning and furnace filters do not remove radon. Radon is a noble gas — it passes straight through any filter, and no amount of cleaning changes what's seeping through the slab. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something.
• Ventilation helps at the margins. A heat recovery ventilator (HRV), running your furnace fan, and improving basement airflow can dilute indoor radon somewhat — useful support, but not a substitute for a proper ASD system when levels are high.
• A healthy HVAC system is still part of the picture. The radioactive particles radon produces attach themselves to dust in your air. Clean ducts, fresh filters and good airflow reduce the dust load those particles ride on — and a well-maintained system keeps whole-home ventilation actually working.
• While you're down there: a sealed sump lid and caulked slab cracks are cheap wins that support any radon strategy.

Your Radon Game Plan

• This fall: order a long-term test kit (about the cost of a pizza night) and start a 91+ day test in the lowest lived-in level.
• When results come back: under 200 Bq/m³, retest every few years or after renovations; 200–600, book a C-NRPP mitigator within two years; over 600, fix it within the year.
• After mitigation: retest to confirm the drop, and keep overall indoor air quality up — ventilation, clean ducts, fresh filters.

Radon is the rare home hazard that is invisible, genuinely serious, dirt-cheap to detect and reliably fixable. In a region where 1 in 6 homes is over the line, the smart money tests.

Radon In Alberta: Quick Answers

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This article is general information about radon and indoor air quality, not medical or professional advice. Health information is summarized from Health Canada, the Canadian Cancer Society and Alberta Health Services; radon statistics are drawn from the 2024 Cross-Canada Radon Survey (Evict Radon National Study / Health Canada) and University of Calgary research, and vary year to year and home to home. Radon testing and mitigation should be carried out following Health Canada guidance, with mitigation designed and installed by a C-NRPP certified professional.