Radon Mitigation May Reduce Lung Cancer Cases
Radon Mitigation May Reduce Lung Cancer Cases
As lung cancer cases are on the rise, there becomes a growing concern regarding the appropriate preventative measures beyond those smoking and non-smoking. Although most cancers come as a shocking diagnosis, there are many people searching for ways to prevent getting cancer.
The first statement out of the mouths of most doctors or even a concerned friend upon hearing the diagnosis is: "Did you smoke?" As many lung cancer victims and survivors could attest, not everyone with lung cancer smokes. In fact, there's a gap of about 10-15 percent of lung cancer patients who have never smoked. So, what's the deal?
It's been estimated that about 3,000 Americans die from lung cancer induced by secondhand smoke. However, as leaders in the radon testing and radon mitigation industries, National Radon Defense is an avid believer in the dangers that radon exposure presents to all people around the world-- the highest concern being lung cancer.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 20,000 people die each year from radon-induced cancer. If you combine the victims from lung cancer induced by radon and secondhand smoke, you'll find 23,000 people-- this is 14.375 percent of the 160,000 lung cancer victims per year. That gap we talked about before may have just been filled.
Although there's been increased awareness and research funding for other cancers, that's unfortunately not the case for lung cancer. Despite the fact that lung cancer kills more people each year than the top four other cancers combined, it has the least amount of funding for research and the lowest survival rate amongst other cancers-- at about 15 percent.
True, 90 percent of lung cancer cases are caused by smoking, but 23,000 people die each year of lung cancer induced by radon exposure, secondhand smoke or other causes. They all need help finding a cure and many don't want to help treat those with a "self-induced" disease. Fortunately, Canada has recently released studies suggesting that lung cancer induced by smoking may be a completely different disease than the lung cancer amongst non-smokers and thus each disease deserves a unique treatment. This will improve some funding and research for the non-smoking group of cancer patients.
National Radon Defense wants to prevent radon from entering your home. We do this by encouraging builders to install radon prevention systems at the initial building of a home. We also want to find radon and reduce it before it causes any problem. So, we test and mitigate homes until their radon levels are as low as possible. Radon is invisible, unscented, and tasteless. Please have your home tested and mitigated. We want to help lower the number of radon-induced lung cancer cases, and the best part is-- we believe we can!
