Who Needs a Microwave?

Your granite countertop may emit radon and radiation

Posted at 11:02 AM on 24 Jul 2008

Heads up, yuppies: Must-have granite countertops may emit worrisome levels of radon and radiation. While granite is known to contain radioactive uranium, which emits radon gas as it decays, the vast majority of countertops emit far less radiation than what we're constantly exposed to from outer space and the earth's crust. But as demand for granite countertops soars and vendors expand their selection -- some now stock hundreds of types of the rock from dozens of countries -- a small number of countertops have been found to emit radiation at a level that could conceivably pose a health risk. "It's not that all granite is dangerous," says one radon measurement and mitigation technician. "But I've seen a few that might heat up your Cheerios a little." You're more likely to be struck by lightning than to get cancer from your countertop, says radiation expert David J. Brenner; but, he adds, "If you can choose another counter that doesn't elevate your risk, however slightly, why wouldn't you?"

source: The New York Times

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Comments: (7 comments)

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Dangerous Granite Countertop Material

Thank God somebody's finally given this topic the limelight it deserves. We've been hammering away on this topic for at least 6 months. We purchased radiation detection devices a few months ago to factually verify the levels of radiation we had heard about. Without these devices we'd have only some research papers for other scientists.

What we've found will hurt the granite industry but they've denied this for 14 years now and finally someone had the courage to stand up to them. We actually practically stumbled upon our discoveries of "hot" granite. One was sitting in the parking lot of one of our competitors. Our gamma scintillator measured about 400 uR/hr in one spot. It was labeled Niagara Gold with a sticker that said "Made in Italy". I Googled it and found that Niagara Gold actually comes from Namibia and that Namibia is the 5th largest producer of uranium in the world. The quarry where is comes from is called Stone Africa and it is located west of Rossing uranium mine & just north of an nuclear fuel EPL owned by Bannerman Resources.

When we started discovering that there is indeed elevated radioactive granite on the market we asked some radiation enthusiasts to go around to slab yards & measure slabs.

One guy found one in Tacoma. Which is part of the reason why I'm posting here, hoping that someone in Washington state knows where this slab is now.

Here's the info from the guy:
"Today I toured a parking lot of granite slabs with my PM1703 and to my amazement found one that averaged more than 200 uR/h with a rusty-colored hot spot at 1030 uR/h! Though not all of the slabs were "hot" I still averaged 30-60 uR/h walking between them compared to a background of 4-5 uR/h."

"For those interested it is in Tacoma, WA in the stone yard along S Center Street just west of S Union Ave, and the slab is one of the first accessible from the gate at S Durango St."

"I returned to the granite vendor on May 10 and the salesman recognized me pretty quickly, and considering my interest he might been so cautious as to not give me a correct identification, but he said it was Savannah from Brasil. It looked like a marginally metamorhized pegmatite (or very coarse grained granite) with a monazite hotspot, but I'm not a geologist."

I could use some help with this. I would hate for a homeowner to be living with such hot granite and not know about it. We tried to do something & contact the WA state Dept. of Ecology but the guy we spoke with said there was nothing that we could do about it since there is no law against selling NORM (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials).

by CarpenterShopCW at 12:29 PM on 24 Jul 2008

Granite canyon...

This is very interesting news.

I've been calling BS on 99% of these tops for months now because they are SO FRIGGIN' UGLY.

Knowing that they are slightly radioactive will only help my cause in this campaign.

If one more realtor spouts love for these hideous counters I'll greenwash her or his mouth out with soap (I'm not a bay guy though, I'll use Burt's Bees).

Chris McMasters

by chrismcmasters at 1:59 PM on 24 Jul 2008

Look for some new guidelines

If the granite purveyors don't take some preemptive action to monitor this themselves now I would expect to see some sort of government oversight being proposed, at least for imports. These articles got me to wondering about local granites too. It would be interesting and revelatory to just wander around a cemetery and check the gravestones.

Got me wondering about my granite desktop too. Maybe someone can figure out how to tap the uranium so I could at least run my laptop off it.

Just kidding...

by President Lindsay at 8:46 AM on 29 Jul 2008

Yikes..geiger that stone

But speaking of microwaves, solar convection ovens and solar cook tops, powered by heat storage salt heated by concentrated solar, with a biogas (cogeneration electric)or wood backup system, might be the green replacement for present cooking apparatus, like the microwave.

For heating water quickly, like a microwave does, a heat exchange tube through the heat storage salt would do it just as quickly.

more status in a solar oven than a granite counter top? I think so. Just like those fancy contract organic gardens. A solar kitchen to cook the organic food, for the cook to cook I mean, after the gardener gathers it. Hehey.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 10:55 AM on 29 Jul 2008

Brown and Silver

That was figured out long ago. As I said here,

Fun fact: pulverizing hard mineral ores, an operation that mining types call comminution, takes ~25 kWh(e) per tonne if 80 percent of the mass is to be in sub-100-micron particles, 50 kWh(e) per tonne for 80 percent below 25 microns. That means granite that can yield two grams per tonne of pure uranium dioxide could be part of an operation where one gram goes to a CANDU plant that uses it to give the crusher, or rather the comminution machine, its necessary 50 kWh(e), and the other gram is net.

Mining techniques have advanced since the days when H. Brown and L. T. Silver thought a three-gram-per-tonne yield would be needed, and the reactor would have to be a breeder, i.e., three hundred grams per tonne would be needed if it were not. ("ATOMIC ENERGY", Encyclopaedia Britannica 1970.)

Country rock can't compete with actual ore deposits, but if they were all gone, it definitely could compete with freezing in the dark.

Your expectation that some sort of government oversight will be proposed ... well, that might happen, but experience with similar talk concerning airline passengers' radiation exposure suggests nothing will come of it. Concerns about public radiation exposure tend to apply only to radiation whose existence entails inconvenience for oil and gas interests.

Practically no amount of radiation exposure is too large to ignore if oil and gas money is not inconvenienced; practically no amount is small enough to ignore, if it is.

The paper came out the 11th!

--- G.R.L. Cowan, H2 energy fan 'til ~1996

by GRLCowan at 12:03 PM on 29 Jul 2008

Here comes the lawyers

"the vast majority of countertops emit far less radiation than what we're constantly exposed to from outer space and the earth's crust."

Uh, not really. Usual background in our area is 4 to 7 uR/hr, many granites will double that or even tripple the background. Still these aren't the ones that will get me sued.

It is the 20 to 100 times background granites that will get me sued. And we have no one to blame but our trade association for not being proactive on the issue. Heck, they covered it up as long as possible.

I'll not renew my dues.

by granitefabber at 7:08 PM on 31 Jul 2008

How could anyone cover up granite radioactivity?!

Even the idiot Steve (?) Milloy has, IIRC, mentioned it in the timeworn Grand Central Station context. In any circles where radioactivity is discussed, it must get mentioned at least once a season.

--- G.R.L. Cowan, H2 energy fan 'til ~1996
How solar power stations can work all winter

by GRLCowan at 7:36 PM on 02 Aug 2008

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