About

Who are we?

Evict Radon enables the research of a confederation of Canadian medical doctors, biologists, geologists, architects, clinical psychologists, communications professionals, and population health experts with a strong track record of innovation, public outreach, and cancer prevention research. Our team combines grassroots science engagement and citizen science-based research in a way perhaps never seen before in Canada for preventing cancers. Evict Radon is led by Dr. Aaron Goodarzi of the University of Calgary, who is the federally-appointed Canada Research Chair for Radiation Exposure Disease.

Together, this group of scholars aim for nothing less than building the essential knowledge needed to ‘evict’ radon as a future source of lung cancer, saving thousands of lives and billions in health care costs.

“The results from your simple 90+ day test are then taken forward by researchers to understand how our environment influences our radon exposure.”

Why do we care?

While radon causes many thousands of new lung cancer diagnoses annually, knowledge to meaningfully reduce exposure is low. Evict Radon is designed to increase awareness about radon-induced lung cancer, and encourage Western Canadians to have their home tested. The results from your simple 90+ day test are then taken forward by researchers to understand how our environment influences our radon exposure. This includes home architecture, our geography, behaviour, and how – in time – our genetics influence our personal risk of developing cancer following radon exposure.

What are the advantages of testing your home through Evict Radon?

An advantage to testing with a research project like Evict Radon is that the scientists perform hundreds of controls to ensure your radon reading is “gold standard”. These include:

Blanks, un-exposed tests put through the entire process to ensure precision and accuracy
Duplicates
Spiked positives, tests we send to the lab to ensure that devices are precise

In addition to ensuring your radon test result is as accurate as possible, your data will be used for the betterment of Canadian Health and society to further research into cancer prevention.

Everything we do and say, has been approved by the Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board, which ensures that there are no conflicts of interest, that your data is held securely and safely, and that the risks of participation are both minimized and fully disclosed.

Our researchers and partners

Our confederation of Canadian scholars spans three Canadian provinces (BC, AB, SK) and continues to grow. By joining our study and testing your home through Evict Radon, you’re enabling radon-related work of the following researchers:

We are also pleased to work together with a variety of partners interested in raising radon awareness and protecting Canadians from the negative effects of radon exposure. These include:

Ethics Statement

The University of Calgary Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board has approved this research study. (Study Ethics ID = REB17-2239) If you have any questions concerning your rights as a possible participant in this research, please contact the Chair of the Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board, Research Services, University of Calgary.

Aaron Goodarzi, PhD

Aaron is the Canada Research Chair for Radiation Exposure Disease. He obtained his PhD from University of Calgary in 2005 and trained as a post-doctoral scholar at the Genome Damage and Stability Centre at the University of Sussex (UK) until 2010. In 2011, he opened his own laboratory at the University of Calgary’s School of Medicine. In 2015, he was named one of Calgary’s Top 40 Under 40 and, in 2016 he was made a University of Calgary “Peak Scholar” for his work in knowledge engagement and innovation with regards to radon gas induced cancer. Dr. Goodarzi is a co-founder of Evict Radon, a national confederation of scholars aimed at enabling radon research by encouraging citizens to test for radon and share their findings with researchers

Weston Jacques, MAPC

Weston is a co-founder and the communications strategist behind Evict Radon. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications Studies from the University of Calgary and a Master of Arts in Professional Communication from Royal Roads University. Weston has a wealth of communications experience in non-profit, health awareness, arts, and telecommunications, with specific expertise in building creative awareness campaigns. As a master of both traditional and digital media, his goal is to reach as many people as possible, educate them on the harmful effects of radon gas, and encourage them to join the research study.