Effective on July 21, 2025, the Donna Schmidt Lung Cancer Prevention Society has been dissolved. Going forward, the founders and the Board of Directors have decided the mission of the Society of increasing public awareness of the risks of Lung Cancer from household and work place radon can best be completed through our support of the BC Lung Foundation (https://bclung.ca/lung-health/radon/radon-detector-library-lending-program/). We have been working with them for the past several years in the distribution of radon detectors to BC Libraries and would like to contribute to that effort and possibly provide resources for home mitigation where elevated radon is present. It is our intent to establish an endowment fund within the framework of the BC Lung Association or Foundation to support their existing Library Electronic Radon Detector Program and may also support mitigation projects for a limited number of homes that have elevated radon. Details will be provided here once the support program has been established.
The following section provides a description as to what motivated the founders in establishing the Society and the driving force that continues our support of its mission through the Lung Association.
“Following Donna’s death from Lung Cancer on 2 January, 2009, her husband, Dana Schmidt, and son, Brian (2011 Nobel Laureate in Physics), established the Donna Schmidt Memorial Lung Cancer Prevention Society. In 2010 the Society was organized as a tax exempt charity and receives donations in support of the Society’s objective to reduce lung cancer from home and workplace radon exposure.”
The Society has donated electronic detectors to the Castlegar Community Library in 2018 and to public libraries in Nelson, Trail, Nakusp, Kaslo and Creston in December 2020. In 2022 the DSLCPS placed electronic detectors in Fernie, Castlegar, Beaver Valley, Nelson, Salmo, Grand Forks, Greenville, Chemainus, and the Ladysmith libraries. Please visit your library to check out these detectors. This program was supplemental to a program initiated by the BC Lung Foundation at other libraries in British Columbia and the founders of this Society will continue to support this program through the BC Lung Foundation in the future.
If you have a library in British Columbia that would like to receive detectors, please contact the Lung Association directly (radonaware@bclung.ca).
These detectors can provide short term readings that can be used for determining relative risk from radon and are useful when you need to have immediate results. Our data has indicated they provide similar results to the puck detectors that are recommended by Health Canada.
For More information about the History of the Society, please contact Dana Schmidt at:
250 304-8837
or email him at:
dschmidt@dsradonprevention.org
If you need your home mitigated you can find a certified professional mitigator at https://c-nrpp.ca/find-a-professional/