RADON TESTING MAY - AUGUST?: 6 MONTH RADON TEST ENCOURAGED  

Thank you for your interest in testing with Evict Radon

Evict Radon is a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to solving Canada’s significant and worsening radon-gas exposure problem. Radon is a substantial cause of lung cancer even in non-smokers. By testing your home with one of our non-profit, research-grade radon test kits and enrolling in our national, public university-based research study, you are helping Evict Radon-aligned researchers from across Canada to understand radon exposure and develop new ways to protect ourselves and loved ones.

Common practice states that winter is the optimal time to radon test. However, as we collect more data, we have determined little difference between winter and spring radon testing. We do, however, encourage our participants to test over seasonal change. At this time, the best and most accurate radon readings obtained during the spring and summer months are those that are longer than 6 months. 

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DETAILED TERMS AND CONDITIONS

The PURPOSE of this study is to understand how residential property indoor air radon levels relate to Canadian residential built environment design features, so that the pan-Canadian confederation of academic researchers can work towards solutions to Canada’s existing and worsening radon problem. This is a citizen scientist project, and we are looking for all Canadians who are willing to purchase a radon test device to test their homes. This research is administratively based at the University of Calgary, but the research team represents a confederation of scholars from across Canada, led by Dr. Aaron Goodarzi who is the federal Canada Research Chair for Radiation Exposure Disease. More information about all of our researchers may be found at https://evictradon.org/about/leadership.

At this time, THIS STUDY IS OPEN TO ALL CANADIAN ADULTS who have the authority and/or permission from the occupants to perform a radon test within the property in question. If you are interested, WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO is obtain a long term (90+ day) radon test kit special to our study that is administered by our C-NRPP (Canadian National Radon Proficiency Program) certified radon testing partner. Kit purchases are made through a link to a secure webstore that will be provided to you if you consent to join this study. Once purchased, we will ship this to your home anywhere that Canada Post services in Canada. Upon receipt of the kit, you then must (1) register the device and enter the start date of the testing period, (2) complete a short online (secure) survey asking about the metrics of the home you are testing, (3) deploy the radon test in your home for a minimum of 90 days, (4) enter an end date online once the test is completed and (5) arrange immediate return shipping of the kit to the North American radon test device recovery hub (address provided with the kit). We wish you to know that, if not interested in this study, other radon test kits are still widely available for sale online and in retail outlets, although we do not endorse any specific commercial entity.

Your EVICT RADON TEST KIT includes (for a single cost of CAD$55.00) shipping to anywhere that Canada Post can reach in Canada, a long-term alpha track tester device (a RadTrak2), kit deployment instructions, and the device processing fee at the international radon test device analysis laboratory. To return the device from anywhere across Canada, we ask that you arrange for return shipping at your local post office within 24 hours of ending your radon test period. You should place your radon test in your home for a minimum of 90 days, ideally between September and the end of May. If purchasing multiple radon tests for different properties, please register each separately and fill out a different building metric survey for each property. Within a few weeks of shipping your kit to the return address, your homes’ radon test results will be sent to you directly using the email address that you used to register the kit. Your de-identified radon and home metric data will be used by Evict Radon’s Canadian confederation of academic researchers. These include radiation biologists, geoscientists, architects and population health scientists.

POTENTIAL BENEFITS AND HARMS

It is important to note that, there are NO DIRECT BENEFITS to you from taking part in this study, other than receiving your home’s radon reading. We do, however, conduct a large number of quality assurance controls (duplicates, blanks and controlled positives) to ensure all ‘Citizen Scientists’ obtain the most accurate readings possible. This is not commonly performed by other radon testing entities but is integral to gold-standard research. By consenting to contribute your data to academic Canadian researchers, you will help us build knowledge needed to protect all Canadians from preventable but hazardously high levels of radon exposure in the future. It is up to you whether or not to act upon your radon test results. Please know, however, there are effective solutions to high radon exposure. There are NO HARMS associated with taking part in this study.

PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY

If you chose to participate in the Evict Radon study, then PLEASE BE ASSURED that all information entered in the following survey will be kept 100% confidential and stored in secured servers, subject to Canadian and EU general data protection regulation privacy laws. Your data will never be shared with any third party and, once linked to your homes’ radon reading, will be de-identified so that you can never be personally traced within the data. Your specific home address will never be published in any format, and specific homes and neighbourhoods are never linked to given radon readings. We take exceptional measures to ensure your privacy is maintained throughout this process. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this consent information or, if at any point you wish to withdraw from our study, please us at contact [email protected] or [email protected]

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE TEST PROCESS

Radon testing in Canada must be managed by CNRPP (Canadian National Radon Proficiency Program) certified professionals. Prior to selecting a test device for this study, the lead researchers evaluated a number of products currently on the market and determined that RadTrak2 long term radon test device manufactured by Radonova and distributed in Canada by RadonWest was the best fit to offer the most scientifically reliable results to all parties. Radonova Inc. are the *only* radon test provider of kits with ISO 17025 Certification – meaning they are the only radon test manufacturer and testing laboratory certified to meet international standards that specify rigorous requirements for a quality management system. For research, using devices with ISO 17025 is essential, and so other test providers are not eligible. This does not, however, constitute an endorsement by the University of RadonWest, Radonova or their products. The University cannot certify the quality or reliability of any equipment sold by RadonWest or Radonova.

The University and/or the leaders of this study do NOT benefit in any way from the sale of test kits and have no financial relationship with RadonWest or Radonova. The researchers (Aaron Goodarzi, Darren Brenner, Cathy Ryan, Joshua Taron, Selim Khan, Dustin Pearson, John Danforth, Jesse Irvine) have absolutely NO financial relationship with any radon testing or mitigation retail or industrial entity. Information from the home metric survey is not shared with any 3rd party. You agree to provide Evict Radon researchers with the radon data for this property, which will be linked to the associated home metrics provided by you. You agree for the purposes of study support, follow-up and further information about radon-related research that we may contact you using the email addresses provided here. You can opt out of this contact list at any time. Once again, please be assured that your information will remain completely confidential and, in turn, is helping Canadian researchers understand and develop solutions to our radon problem.

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, 403-220-7990. The University of Calgary Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board has approved this research study.

The University of Calgary Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board has approved this research study.

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