Granite Countertops Release Cancer-Causing Radon Gas

Monday, December 29, 2008 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
Tags: granite, health news, Natural News

(NaturalNews) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports an increasing number of calls from homeowners and radon inspectors in recent months concerning granite countertops emitting unusually high levels of radiation.

"It's not that all granite is dangerous," said Stanley Liebert, a radon measurement and mitigation technician from CMT Laboratories in Clifton Park, N.Y. "But I've seen a few that might heat up your Cheerios a little."

Liebert carried out testing at the home of pediatrician Lynn Sugarman, in an attempt to find the source of mysteriously elevated levels of the radioactive gas radon. When he got to her granite countertops, his Geiger counter began registering readings ten times higher than in the rest of in the house.

"My first thought was, my pregnant daughter was coming for the weekend," Sugarman said.

Liebert advised her to keep her daughter several feet away from the countertop at all times.

With the increasing popularity of granite countertops, a wide variety of granites are now available from all over the world. A surprising number of these, like the one used in Sugarman's kitchen, contain uranium and give off radiation at several times above the background level.

According to the EPA, a normal person is exposed to a "background level" of 360 millirem of radiation per year from both natural and industrial sources. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says that people living near nuclear reactors should not be exposed to more than100 millirem above background level in a given year.

But some commercially available granite countertops have been found to emit radiation high enough to expose a person to this much radiation in only a few months if they spend just two hours per day in close proximity. Likewise, the concentration of radon in the air of Sugarman's kitchen was 100 picocuries per liter, which is 25 times the EPA-recommended maximum.

Despite the thresholds set by different government agencies, EPA Indoor Environments Division program analyst Lou Witt notes, "There is no known safe level of radon or radiation; any exposure increases your health risk."

Sources for the story include: www.nytimes.com.