Your home could be putting you at risk of lung cancer according to a Utah cancer expert [Video]

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

Utah has one of the lowest smoking rates in the country, yet oncologists like Dr. Wallace Akerley with the Huntsman Cancer Institute have their calendars full of lung cancer patients. How can this be? The answer is simple: radon.

The leading cause of cancer in non-smokers

Lung cancer used to be known purely as a smoker’s disease, but the science behind the number one cause of cancer death in America has made strides. According to Dr. Akerley, lung cancer can now be broken down into nine diseases that can be further broken down into 18 pathways. In just a few years, that could increase to 30–50.

“All of the molecular [lung cancer] breakthroughs occur in patients who don’t smoke,” shares Dr. Akerley. “My interest has been dominated by never-smokers lung cancer, [and] radon is the number two cause of lung cancer.”

Radon is a radioactive gas, and anything radioactive can damage your DNA. This gas is created …