Day care centres and family day homes aren’t required to do radon testing to get licensed.

Yukon NDP Leader Liz Hanson thinks they should be.

“The Department of Health and Social Services, which is responsible for licensing of childcare centres and family day homes, takes the view that it’s not responsible for ensuring that radon testing is done,” Hanson said in an interview Wednesday afternoon.

“You’re giving somebody a licence to operate, but you haven’t made sure that it’s safe.”

A federal Auditor General report released Monday revealed that in radon tests done by the Yukon Worker’s Compensation Health and Safety Board in 2008, eight of 22 child care centres and family day homes showed “unacceptable radon levels.”

At the time, the board told Health and Social Services that remediation and retesting should be done. Operators were to give evidence of retesting and remediation to the board.

Because day care centres and day homes don’t occupy government-owned buildings, the onus is on the individual operators to test for radon.

Though Health and Social Services doesn’t enforce radon testing, it is responsible for inspecting these facilities and ensuring they are safe for children and staff.

For this reason, said the Auditor General report, the department “should have taken steps such as informing all facility operators of the radon issue and following up to determine what steps they had taken to address it.

“We found, however, that the (Health and Social Services) Department had not taken any action to directly address this issue.”

Prompted by “the serious nature” of its findings, the Auditor General sent a letter to the deputy minister of Health and Social Services in 2016 about its concerns regarding radon in day care centres and day homes.

The department responded that it would take actions to ensure these facilities are safe.

The Auditor General has recommended the Departments of Health and Social Services, Highways and Public Works, and Education develop a strategy for managing radon in their buildings. The government has agreed to comply.

Hanson doesn’t believe that day care centres and family day homes that have elevated radon levels should have their licences revoked.

“Revoking is a negative approach,” she said.

A positive approach, she said, would be for Health and Social Services to check that facilities are testing for radon.

Rather than blame the individual operators, said Hanson, Health and Social Services should assume the responsibility of ensuring facilities show adequate levels of radon.

Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking.

“Health and Social Services, you’re the ones responsible and accountable for who you license,” Hanson pointed out.

“I as a parent would take comfort in knowing that they’ve met those standards.”

In Canada, the Yukon ranks third-highest for the percentage of homes that have shown in tests to have radon levels above 200 Bq/m3, Health Canada’s limit for acceptable radon concentration.

The risks associated with radon are from long-term exposure, said Dr. Catherine Elliott, the Yukon’s deputy chief medical officer of health.

“The risks for exposures less than a decade are small and smaller still if the exposure is not all day, all night, seven days a week,” she said in an email this morning.

Health Canada considers 200 Bq/m3 to be an acceptable level exposure to radon over the course of a lifetime (70 years).

“Even if an individual was exposed to a rate of 450 Bq/m3, which is over the Health Canada guideline, for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, over 10 years their risk would be equivalent to someone exposed to 50 Bq/m3 over a lifetime of 70 years,” wrote Elliott.

She said the risk associated with exposure at Yukon schools, four of which have shown elevated levels of radon since 2008, is low, even if the length of exposure was more than a decade.

“Yet, it is still cause for remediation in order to err on the side of caution and to protect for a lifetime of exposure,” she said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that smokers exposed to radon are 25 times more at risk of developing lung cancer than non-smokers exposed to radon.

According to the WHO, studies done around the world since the 1980s suggest that an increased risk of lung cancer exists even when radon levels in homes and workplaces are above 100 Bq/m3.

To protect a home or building from radon, the WHO recommends sealing cracks in the walls and floors, installing a radon suction pipe or subslab ventilation system in the basement, and improving ventilation throughout the building.

Elliott reminds Yukoners that it is important to test for radon in their homes, where they spend most of their time, to reduce the amount they smoke and avoid exposing others to cigarette smoke.

For more information, she encouraged Yukoners to visit www.takeactiononradon.ca

There seems to be a strong public awareness of radon risks. In late 2016, hundreds of Yukoners rushed to snap up home radon detection kits under a promotion offered by the Yukon Lung Association, working with the Yukon Housing Corp.

See editorial in opinion section.