That’s a question better left answered by her Doctor. I’d stay away from that discussion.

Answer to Question #12071 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

I would also defer to the physician for that answer. I always tell the client that if they have a concern to please inform their doctor, especially if they are working with a pulmonologist for other respiratory issues such as asthma or COPD

While I think we can agree that each individual's case is different, and that for responses specific to an individual, health concerns are properly brought to that person's physician(s), there are nevertheless some things that can be said in response to Doug Stoll's question:

1) Smoking has many different adverse outcomes whose rates of risk after smoking cessation behave differently. For example, though some of the data might have been refined by more recent studies, the website https://whyquit.com/whyquit/A_Benefits_Time_Table.html gives at least an idea of how these rates of improvement differ depending on the health outcome studied. Be careful to avoid saying that "in a year or so" someone is healed from the adverse effects of smoking -- or of radon.

2) With respect to the risk of lung cancer after smoking cessation, there are numerous studies out there, but here is an article--not necessarily the best or most recent, but accessible to most readerships--that shows how lung cancer risk both drops but remains higher than a never-smoker's risk for a long time after quitting: https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/cigarettes-the-lung-cancer-risk-lingers

3) I am not aware if clinical studies specifically addressing the behavior of the lung cancer risk curve after reducing radon exposure have been done. However, I understand (e.g., from BEIR VI, etc.) there are reasons to believe (and I defer to those more expert than me to elaborate) that lung cancer risk over time after radon exposure reduction would show some characteristics similar to its behavior after smoking cessation.

4) In other words, though the lung cancer risk would not reduce to the level of a person never-exposed-to-high-levels-of-radon, substantial reductions in that person's risk would be expected to occur over time.

5) Of course, there is never any guarantee regarding the outcome for any particular person.

Thanks, Kevin, good insight.