You’ll be pleased to know city facilities have very low levels of radon.
The city started testing its buildings for the dangerous gas in January. Only ten of the city’s 36 buildings have been looked at thus far, but the City Engineer Dave Dyer says tests have only shown safe levels of radon.
“We weren’t sure what to expect, to be honest. We took some of the readings right in the basement of the City Hall, right where the most opportunity for radon to be emulating from the subsurface and we were quite surprised how low the readings were.’
Of these ten buildings, Dyer says every single room had a safe reading.
“There were only three results that were over 100 becquerels (Bq) per cubic metre. At 200 Bq/m3, we look at mitigation measures to actually vent off radon that is affecting buildings.”
Health Canada requires remedial action to be taken if any reading is higher than 200 Bq/m3.
Those three were City Hall’s basement elevator room (152 Bq/m3), CN Centre lower concourse (112 Bq/m3), and Kin 2 staff room (103 Bq/m3).
The city will keep testing its facilities and create a final report in June.
Dyer recommends doing a radon test in your home, especially in the basement.
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