What’s Lurking in Your Countertop? (Granite countertops pose risk)

[Tab]

Source: NY Times

SHORTLY before Lynn Sugarman of Teaneck, N.J., bought her summer home in Lake George, N.Y., two years ago, a routine inspection revealed it had elevated levels of radon, a radioactive gas that can cause lung cancer. So she called a radon measurement and mitigation technician to find the source.

Testing Reports of granite emitting high levels of radon and radiation are increasing.

Using devices like the Geiger counter and the radiation detection instrument Stanley Liebert measures the radiation and radon emanating from granite like that in Lynn Sugarman’s kitchen counters.

“He went from room to room,” said Dr. Sugarman, a pediatrician. But he stopped in his tracks in the kitchen, which had richly grained cream, brown and burgundy granite countertops. His Geiger counter indicated that the granite was emitting radiation at levels 10 times higher than those he had measured elsewhere in the house.

“My first thought was, my pregnant daughter was coming for the weekend,” Dr. Sugarman said. When the technician told her to keep her daughter several feet from the countertops just to be safe, she said, “I had them ripped out that very day,” and sent to the state Department of Health for analysis. The granite, it turned out, contained high levels of uranium, which is not only radioactive but releases radon gas as it decays. “The health risk to me and my family was probably small,” Dr. Sugarman said, “but I felt it was an unnecessary risk.”
...
“It’s not that all granite is dangerous,” said Stanley Liebert, the quality assurance director at CMT Laboratories in Clifton Park, N.Y., who took radiation measurements at Dr. Sugarman’s house. “But I’ve seen a few that might heat up your Cheerios a little.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/garden/24granite.html?no_interstitial

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Radon is stored in rock, so it's highly likely, though I'd think that countertops, which are only an inch or so at best, would have the gas released from the outer areas and would be trapped or slowly release from the inner areas. I don't know the physics involved, but it's an interesting issue.

Radon generally just needs to be vented - this is why it's a problem in basements (surrounded by rock and usually no venting) but I'd think a kitchen would be decently aired out on a regular basis.

[barbtries]

1. suddenly i'm fond of my formica n/t

[NMDemDist2]

2. interesting, I bet the most beautifully colored granite will more likely

have the uranium

:wow:

I never liked the look anyway.....

[Vanje]

3. Fortunately

I cannot afford Uranium Countertops.

[shanti]

4. wow

this is an extremely popular countertop now. wonder how many people are going to start ripping it out now :wow:

[Bennyboy]

5. Wow. HOLY SHIT! I am in the granite business and a good friend

died a couple of months ago from cancer. He and his family just moved into a new 6 million dollar home with granite everywhere, countertops, bathrooms etc. He also had travertine over his floors, about 20 K square feet both inside and outside the house....(wonder if the travertine has the same problems?)

We are not talking about just one countertop or bathroom but acres of stone all through the house.... 6 bathrooms, huge kitchen area, tubs, vanities. All very decorative and very expensive.

Nobody can figure out how he got cancer, he was totally healthy a year ago. Now not so much. Not saying this is the cause but a non smoker dying of lung cancer raises questions for sure....

[saigon68]

6. Wow a 6 million $ home with 6 toilets

I'm impressed

[Bennyboy]

9. They even had his and hers toilets (With bidet in hers) in the master bathroom

The master bedroom/bathroom was 1200 square feet. 10 car garage and the guy only owned Kias! So funny. He worked really hard on his business and he became the leader in the area for what he did. Can't fault the guy a thing really, he was very charitable too. But two years after he moved into that house he was dead. I miss the guy, he was one cool Republican.

[Earth_First]

29. "...he was one cool Republican."

Say no more.

[saigon68]

34. I wonder how many "Servants" they had to clean the toilets

Around my area these "folks" hire illegals and pay them cash to mow the lawn, walk the dogs, wash the clothes and clean the toylets

[Bennyboy]

35. Funny but you are painting people with a very broad brush.....

For one thing he did not have ONE servant. He also made sure that none of the contractors had any illegals on their crew when they worked on his house. He mostly hired "one bucket" (small contractors) guys and they (myself included) spent as much time as was needed on his house. Whenver we billed him he paid. Whatever we billed him he paid. One of the fairest people I have ever done business with in 40 years of contracting.

In his business, he did not have any illegals on his crews or in his warehouses.

Like I said, one cool Republican.

[rucognizant]

7. I've been watching...........

those decorating shows...Trading spaces.Flip that House, Extreme Makeover etc. Seems to me that granite and travertine are 2008's pink and black checkerboard tile of the 50's.
Beyond that, Flip T H, Moving Up and First House,undoubrtedly have led some hell bent into the mortgage crisis, feeding the need to have a house.....
WHen so many houses are being forclosed, is this appropriate entertainment?
I'm sorry to hear about your friend!
This article prompts me to have radon testing done here. My farmhouse id=s built on a granite ledge. The former owner his son next door, and the man across the street all died of lung cancer!
As did my son after he had lived here with me for a year............... ( he had other contributing factors!)
The widows either side of me are hail & hearty! The lady across the street lived to be 102!

[hedgehog]

21. You really should get your house tested for radon. It's a problem that

developed when houses were insulated and sealed up after the first energy crisis. Up until then, there was enough of an air exchange that the radon gas didn't accumulate.


Most homes in New York State have radon leaching into the basement. Houses along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario are sitting on clay instead of bedrock, so we don't have that problem.

[elehhhhna]

41. yep, those countertops will be dated in 10 years, but in most cases not paid for in less than 30

crazy, imo

[Tesha]

12. Ttravertine and marble, being sedimentary, shouldn't be affected much.

Granite is igneous, so it's a nice stew of all of
the molten minerals from which it came including
uranium compounds.

o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travertine

o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble

o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granite
o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granite#Natural Radiation

Tesha

[Thothmes]

20. Marble is a metamorphosed limestone

[Tesha]

23. Thanks; you're correct but my point stands.

Limestone being sedimentary.

Tesha

[wordpix]

13. then again, just breathing polluted air every day could cause lung cancer

[TinaCarpenterShop]

14. Granite & Radiation

First off, I'm sorry to hear about your friend. Was he in the granite business as well? The family may want to have a radon technician come out to test their home.

It's not travertine, nor marble, or soapstone, just some of the exotic granites.

Many of you are correct when you say that it'll most likely be the wealthy who will be hurt by this but there are some working class families who invested heavily into their kitchens who will be hurt as well. We have a customer (who's definitely not wealthy) who has an elevated radioactive Bordeaux in her kitchen, just one spot, but its right where she eats every day. We've offered to replace it for her with a safer Bordeaux even though we weren't the ones who fabricated or installed it. It'll add to our testing samples.

I know quite a bit about this as my husband & I have been studying this for a while now. So far what we've found is granites from Brazil that are in the Bordeaux family are some of the suspect stones. You're more likely to find a "hot" sample from a Bordeaux, Crema Bordeaux, Four Seasons, etc. than you will find a hot sample from (for example) St. Cecilia or Uba Tuba. As far as others, Shivakasi was mentioned in the article. It comes from India. The region where it comes from is the state of Tamil Nadu & Tamil Nadu is known for its Monazite sand beaches. Monazite is highly radioactive. There are some granites coming from Namibia. These collection of colors are called "The Africa Range". The quarry where they come from is called Stone Africa. Stone Africa is situated in a very radioactive region of Namibia. Stone Africa is just West of Rossing open pit uranium mine which has been in operation since the 70's. You can see it from Google satellite. Stone Africa is also situated just North of an nuclear fuel (uranium) EPL (exclusive prospecting license) owned by Bannerman Resources. Bannerman thinks that there's enough uranium to equal that of the Rossing mine (owned by Rio Tinto). There was actually a news story about a stone company & Bannerman fighting over the same land here: http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page66?oid=42555&sn=Detail
Isn't that insane!

If you do shop around for stone don't be fooled by the "Made in Italy" sticker. It just means that the stone was processed (a block is sliced up into slabs, resined & polished) in Italy not quarried in Italy.

So, yes unfortunately some stone has been recklessly quarried & imported, they should have known better. And primarily people with large houses & large incomes may be affected.

[lolly]

28. Welcome to DU

And thanks for the information!

:hi:

We're doing a kitchen remodel right now--using Ceasarstone (sp?)--hope that's safe.

[Canuckistanian]

37. Very informative, thanks

And welcome to DU!

:toast:
:hi:

[harmonicon]

15. I'm sorry about your friend, but lung cancer still happens to non smokers

I don't remember the exact numbers, but I think it's something like 70 - 75% of people who develop lung cancer have been smokers. Though less common, that's still a pretty large number of non-smokers who will develop the cancer.

[pitohui]

26. they should test the house for radon before selling it to anyone else

it has been known for a long time that granite can be a source of radioactivity, they used to have these radon kits to test people who had stone basements

not a problem i've thought of it in many a year, living in louisiana

[catzies]

38. Googling "travertine + radon" gives you a YES, it looks like. Wow, indeed.

Sorry about the loss of your friend.

[mopinko]

39. he wasn't perfectly healthy a year ago. his cancer just wasn't detected.

most cancers move slowly. they take years to grow to the size that they are even noticed. if it was something in his environment, it was likely from 10 or 20 years ago.

[supernova]

8. Planning a kitchen remodel here

in the next 2-3 years.

And I decided I didn't want granite counters. They are 1) too expensive 2) require sealing every six months. The less housework I have to do, the better.

I'm going with the quartz counters. They are practically indestructible. And I don't know of anything bad about them.

Granite housing radon is interesting though. How sad. It seems like that small an amount of granite wouldn't give off enough radon though. :shrug:

[Tesha]

10. Radon is evolved continuously.

Radon (the gas) is a decay product of radium (a solid)
so in essence, fresh new radon gas is constantly being
produced by any decaying radium in the granite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radon

It also is much, much heavier than nitrogen and oxygen
so that is another reason why it accumulates in the
low places in buildings (such as the basements).

Tesha

[Tab]

11. That's why this is coming to attention

Most people don't test for Radon above-ground. Only underground (basements, etc.)

[Mojorabbit]

16. Crap

I finished my dream kitchen five years ago with a lovely green granite.

[AngryAmish]

17. What kind of radiation is emitted?

This really does matter. (I'm not chemistry/radiation whiz so if I'm wrong, please correct me).

Anyway, there is alpha, beta, gamma and other forms of radiation. If an alpha emitter, no big deal. If a gamma emitter, big trouble. But if radon in breathed into the body, then that is big trouble.

Anyway, more info would be helpful.

[Tesha]

24. Per Wikipedia, it's Alpha, Beta, or electron capture.

But because radon is a gas, the decay can occur
within your lungs so there's no shielding between
the decay and the cells that comprise your lungs
so any of those decay modes get to take their
shot at your tissues.

o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radon

Tesha

[eppur_se_muova]

42. There is a whole chain of "daughter" nuclei produced ...

some of which will be beta emitters, some alpha emitters. But once radon escapes into the air, its decay products tend to be captured on dust particles, which are then breathed in, as is radon. So as long as there's a source of radon, you are breathing radioactive particles directly into your lungs, where they can irradiate your tissues at short range.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decay_chain :

The intermediate stages often emit more radioactivity than the original radioisotope: when equilibrium is achieved, a granddaughter isotope is present in proportion to its half-life; but since its activity is inversely proportional to its half-life, any nucleid in the decay chain finally contributes as much as the head of the chain. For example, natural uranium is not significantly radioactive, but samples of pitchblende, a uranium ore, are 13 times more radioactive because of the radium and other daughter isotopes they contain. Not only are unstable radium isotopes significant radioactive emitters, but they also generate gaseous radon as the next stage in the decay chain. Thus, radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas, which is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers<1>.

[XemaSab]

18. Suck on that, HGTV!

:D

[alfredo]

19. The thought of a pregnant woman bellying up to a radioactive counter

top, is enough for me not to want one in my house.

[Xithras]

22. All granite is radioactive to some extent.

Yosemite will give you cancer :)

[damntexdem]

25. You just can't take them for granite.

No matter what glowing reviews they get.

[Tab]

32. I live in NH

Your bad pun has been used and abused.

Create a better one, Sir or Madame! Or I shall be forced to take you outside!

[goforit]

27. Not all granite poses a risk.......buy a radon kit and find out.

[blueoak]

30. Soapstone has asbestos

It wouldn't "gas out", but does have health risks working it.I'm more concerned with the people making the pieces.

[not fooled]

31. Geez, I live on a mountain...

...the soil type is called "decomposed granite".

? :scared: ?

[RantinRavin]

33. Cool, I can throw the microwave away

and just install a granite box that uses no electricity.

[Canuckistanian]

36. Radioactive Consumer Products

I thought this was interesting.

http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/consumer%20products/consumer.htm

There are SO many consumer products that are naturally radioactive, including red Fiesta Ware,

which was discontinued during WWII because the uranium was needed for atomic bombs.

[NutmegYankee]

40. Did Y'all really not know Granite was radioactive?

I'm seeing all these responses and I'm surprised. There used to be granite buildings in New york called hot boxes because of their radioactivity. It is still a funny joke (but true) to never lay a TLD on a granite counter.