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HOUSTON, July 26 (UPI) -- A Texas expert says some granite counter tops have high amounts of uranium that could create a health risk for humans.
Rice University physics Professor W.J. Llope says gamma radiation and radon gas produced by uranium-rich stones used to make counter tops could cause cancer in humans, the Houston Chronicle reported Friday.
The people behind this scare are the makers of solid-surface countertops.
We probably get more radiation getting on a plane flight.
Radon is very real, but its dangers are not quite as severe or as prevalent as the Cambria people would like us to think.
This is just one more way to get us, the hapless consumers, to spend money on a radon testing kit (or choose Cambria quartz instead).
First of all Radon is a very real health issue.
Second, the amount of radon that "might" be in a granite counter top is so low, and the chance of having a chunk of granite that just happened to have high radon level is even lower, you have better odds winning the Powerball only buying one ticket.
This was done by the people that sell Corian to try to scare people away from using granite counter tops. The research is dubious at best.
While there are some parts of the country where radon is not much of a problem, many States have serious issues with it. Radon is not some made-up flim-flam to try to sell products
Seems Uba Tuba isn't hot so I'm safe. But some types of Granite are unsafe. I'm just glad I didn't do granite tile on my floors, that 22 inch ceramic is looking pretty good right now.
If the granite contained enough uranium and/or Radon to be unsafe it would have been mined as ore. Sounds like fear monger marketing to me. Ignore.
I prefer old fashioned and cheap laminate because a tipped over glass is likely to break on granite and survive on laminate. Did I mention that laminate is also cheap.
Granite is not a totally consistent product. It varies greatly in terms of its mineralization mine to mine.
It is just about zero radon risk as the amount of off gasing is nominal beause of the small mass involved. I doubt you could even detect it.
Many granites are in fact Alpha emitters and that is a biggy. Why didn't they use that as a scare tactic? Again the mass in a counter is so small your dose would be nominal, probably could not detect it above background radiation.
The scare tactics are good because the average Joe knows little or next to nothing about the general broad field called Health Physics which is the science of how all types of radiation affects living organisms. In the big picture it is primarily a matter of degree and everything is relative. In fact just about all materials in the World are radioactive to some degree, including your own human body. Varying organs of the body collect and store particular elements, some of which can be quite radioactive, it all works as long as certain levels are not exceeded. Probably more risk from a type of chemical poisoning in many cases. Again it is all relative. Vitually all the food you consume is radioactive to some level. Example there was a guy in Canada that got a bad case of Cobalt-60, your blood collects the element in solution. Turns out that was traced to drinking like gallons of beer a day over years and years. Liver probably gave out from the alcohol long before the cobalt got him. It is all about something known as a Body Burden.
For the final chuckle, there are some old underground mines out west that have been rehab'd as health spas. Some have very high levels of radon gas trapped underground. Certain medical conditions apparently find good relief from several week exposure to these type atmospheres. A number of breathing type problems or circulation type conditions are treated as a type of alternative medicine.
It is helpful to have a basic understanding of Health Physics at the 101 level before engaging in great raging debate about these types of subjects.
Just remember most living organism are quite resistent to most things in their environment, including all types of radiation as the lower levels. If not we would all have been dead long ago. Most exposures are chronic in nature, usually some other factor will kill you first, like chemical or bio in nature.
I sent a lab report on the Houston countertop to the NRC and was informed it three times above Source level for nuclear fuel. In fact, I was told that a license would be required to handle the product. The NRC is just now waking up to the severity of this issue.
As to whether or not the granite would have been mined for fuel, no neccessarily. In Namibia there is a court battle going on over a lease on a spot of land in the desert. An uranium mine is fighting a granite quarry company over the right to mine the plot of land. Absolutely mind blowing isn't it?
Cosmic,
I am afraid you need to do some more research. Look up the AARST site and download the papers from last years convention on this topic. Or visit our scientific study section on our website for some pictures of a radon monitors showing up to 30 pCi/L from 36 square feet of Radon in an 96 square foot room. As to mass, there will be from one ton to three tons of granite in an average job. hardly small. Lastly, the radon industry specificaly prohibits radon testing with a meter sitting on a granite top because of the emission will interfere with the test.
Most granites do have some Alpha from high K40 levels, but not the super hot granites that are of concern, those are mostly Beta and Gamma emitters, coming from high U 238 and 235 or Thorium. Alpha, except Radon progeny, are not a concern as a few inches of air will stop most Alpha. Radon is different because it delivers the gas to your lungs, when it breaks down the resulting Alpha particles from the rest of the decay chain (and there are many decays from just one Radon atom) are hitting lung tissue directly.
A normal person doesn't have serious levels of radiation present. That is pure bunk. You won't register on a meter unless you have had a medical isotope injection recently.
The final word on these issues is the BEIR reports put out by the National Academies, government funded but an independent research organization. Specifically they looked into the Hormesis claims and rejected them all, including the Radon mines. Pure quackery sold to gulible sick people.
BEIR VII stated that a single track of ionizing radiation across a single cell has the potential to generate DNA damage or cancer. Until those like yourself that dismiss science convince the majority of researchers, your claims are completely unsupported by the majority of scientists.
The one think you do have right is that the chemical poisoning being an even larger danger than the radiation from the granite.
Last edited by Al Gerhart; 02-04-2009 at 08:51 PM..
Reason: HTML tags
After this crap came out I decide to do a little test. I placed two monitors in the same house. One was set on a granite counter top, and the other was on my portable table in the same room.
I got almost identical numbers from both machines.
Granite health risk? Yeah right!
Oh by the way - This is from the AARST site regarding granite counter tops.
"At this time, the EPA does not believe sufficient data exists to conclude that the types of granite
commonly used in countertops are significantly increasing indoor radon levels."
I sent a lab report on the Houston countertop to the NRC and was informed it three times above Source level for nuclear fuel. In fact, I was told that a license would be required to handle the product. The NRC is just now waking up to the severity of this issue.
As to whether or not the granite would have been mined for fuel, no neccessarily. In Namibia there is a court battle going on over a lease on a spot of land in the desert. An uranium mine is fighting a granite quarry company over the right to mine the plot of land. Absolutely mind blowing isn't it?
Cosmic,
I am afraid you need to do some more research. Look up the AARST site and download the papers from last years convention on this topic. Or visit our scientific study section on our website for some pictures of a radon monitors showing up to 30 pCi/L from 36 square feet of Radon in an 96 square foot room. As to mass, there will be from one ton to three tons of granite in an average job. hardly small. Lastly, the radon industry specificaly prohibits radon testing with a meter sitting on a granite top because of the emission will interfere with the test.
Most granites do have some Alpha from high K40 levels, but not the super hot granites that are of concern, those are mostly Beta and Gamma emitters, coming from high U 238 and 235 or Thorium. Alpha, except Radon progeny, are not a concern as a few inches of air will stop most Alpha. Radon is different because it delivers the gas to your lungs, when it breaks down the resulting Alpha particles from the rest of the decay chain (and there are many decays from just one Radon atom) are hitting lung tissue directly.
A normal person doesn't have serious levels of radiation present. That is pure bunk. You won't register on a meter unless you have had a medical isotope injection recently.
The final word on these issues is the BEIR reports put out by the National Academies, government funded but an independent research organization. Specifically they looked into the Hormesis claims and rejected them all, including the Radon mines. Pure quackery sold to gulible sick people.
BEIR VII stated that a single track of ionizing radiation across a single cell has the potential to generate DNA damage or cancer. Until those like yourself that dismiss science convince the majority of researchers, your claims are completely unsupported by the majority of scientists.
The one think you do have right is that the chemical poisoning being an even larger danger than the radiation from the granite.
Total bogus subject again.
Simple fact there are many, many buildings with huge amounts of granite. If it was the hazard being spouted about, there would be bodies all over the USA. What about the granite quarries, everybody should be dead after a short exposure? What about the folks who use and handle granite dust. It is used for many construction projects, I put tons of it in my old driveway, zero protection taken, should I not also be dead also? Where is the actual data to support these type claims?
This same sort of braying is done about radon. The so called one study that they attempt to base it all on (The Beir studies), is rather badly flawed. How many folks have actually read it or vaguely understand what they attempted to do? There is no clinical type independent tests using like lab rats, confirming independent tests using the actual conditions found in a typical household environment. The entire subject needs to be completely revisited again by a competent group, there need to be peer review. As far as I'm concerned it is a case of muddy water, any potential harm has been badly misrepresented. Most things will present harm, the problem is in getting an accurate representation.
Radon and asbestos are the two potential hazards that probably have been used to create entire industries for those who have financial interests. Asbestos can apparently be hazardous to some percentage of the population but a quick reading by anyone who simply understands the history and facts will come to the conclusion you probably need a very large exposure for some extended period. Again there are essentially no definitive type studies that attempts to define the risk / levels / exposures at a clinical level. Radon is even worse in the so called study is essentially a paperwork exercise with very bad flaws and assumptions. The damage is done in a way. Folks have to play the game to sell their house.
Unlike most folks, I have actually had a procedure known as a whole body count. Basically it is a machine with a huge radiation monitoring head, couple of feet across. You lay down on a bunk like track which pulls you under the monitor, a print out type chart is made of all areas of the body. They identify by isotope what is present. All peeps will have various forms of radiation within their bodies. I definitely have it in mine and get a small exposure per year from it. A typical number might be something like .1 REM exposure. They can even find the stuff from the old weapons testing in the atmosphere in you. The chuckle being when they were doing the counts for all nuke workers at the plant where I worked, the folks with the most contamination was the painters. Industrial paints contain many radioactive materials and they get a pretty good dose to their lungs. Hint - Start another industry, ban all paints, get a lot of lawyers involved. You can actually prove it is so, making the solid case for a life threatening hazard might be a bit tougher.
You can play these games to the cows come home. Probably pick about any material desired and then go braying about how hazardous it is. Especially rewarding if you can figure out how to make a living off it. The sad part is the medical, government regulators, etc have not been up to the task of actually getting hard data to support the varying claims. Many studies are biased. I have actually worked on way too many of them. Some of the most wasted time of my life. If we are not careful this will become the norm and everything under the sun will be banned.
Shame they did not feel that way about the peanut butter. If you want to get real worried about something, think about the food chain. If that get contaminated in a serious way, then it is time to run about scream and shout. Until then, you definitely want to avoid all hazards but also want to use some perpective about how various risks are being presented.
Actually granite workers have been studied for cancer rates since the early 20th century and all the studies found higher rates of cancer. Epidemologists tell us that Radon and radiaton don't make people drop like flies, but it adds excess cancer rates to existing natural cancer rates. The best estimate made so far for the lowest level granite top is around 3 in 10,000 chances of developing cancer per year of exposure. It isn't a huge risk, but it is a risk that consumers deserve to know about.
Your ignorance of the subject gives you away.BEIR were not "studies", they were committees that looked at the Biological Effect of Ionizing Radiation in sever separate committees over many decades. The had discussion periods where anyone could comment, even homeowners and whackos. They had hundredes of experts from around the world participating, some countries had dozens and dozens of their experts participating and just about every country in the world participated. These are the most "compentent group" that one could ever come up with.
BEIR looked at all existing studies, every last one that was submitted or printed in scientific journals.
So you claiming "[/SIZE][SIZE=3]so called one study that they attempt to base it all on (The Beir studies), is rather badly flawed." just proves that you know absolutely nothing about the issues.[/SIZE]
Adding Radon to your list of conspiracies again proves how little you know. The EPA and all other major health organizations agree that Radon is a killer, the number two cause of lung cancer.
Radon is the best studied cause of cancer there is, with hundreds of studies completed and dozens more long term studies still underway. Claiming the Radon claims are based on one study, again your arguments are easily smacked down.
Now, if this issue wasn't real, neither CRCPD (state radiation officals organization) nor AARST (Radon scientists) wouldn't have committees looking into the issues. Nor would ASME be looking into the dangers, I happen to sit on that committee.
What really amazes me is how hard some people will fight to supress the discussion and claim it is all a myth when they don't know much about any of it.
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Come on ..... at least get the basic facts right
