What Doctors Don't Tell YouThink of lung cancer, and you probably instinctively think of cigarette smoking. But there’s another major cause, and it’s present in most of our homes – the inert gas radon-222, which occurs naturally from the decay of uranium in the earth’s crust.
Although concentrations are low outdoors, it’s common in our homes, and at relatively high levels. Levels tend to be lower in urban homes than those in rural areas. The underlying rock in urban areas tends to be sedimentary, and more people live upstairs in apartments.
It’s high enough, however, says a new study, to be responsible for 9 per cent of all deaths from lung cancer, and that’s after allowing for smoking in the home. The study, carried out by Oxford’s Radcliffe Infirmary, is based on reports from nine European countries, and involving 7,148 cases of lung cancer.
So what can you do to reduce the radon levels in your home? Improving ventilation and sealing cracks in concrete floors will do a lot. If you have a suspended timber floor, an air brick or fan would help. If you already have aan air brick, make sure it’s not been covered over by vegetation. In the worst cases, where radon levels are known to be high, you may need a sump installed, especially if you have a concrete floor. A sump is effectively a small cavity under the floor from which air is extracted.
It’s been estimated that the gas ‘significantly affects’ 100,000 homes in Britain alone – but of those, just 10 per cent could be bothered to do anything to reduce the levels.
(Source: British Medical Journal, 2005; 330: 223-7).
Daniel Redwood DC
Tom Ferguson MD
