Green Daily

Wow. I never really thought about radioactivity as a possibility in granite counter tops... So how can a consumer take action and test the counter top with materials from say Home Depot?

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Well, this is a bit worrisome. We as individuals need to support businesses that not only provide a desirable utility but also benefit the environment. I came across a website http://www.simplestop.net that stops your postal junk mail and benefits the environment.

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OMG, we should be totally afraid of all things radioactive. We need more fear uncertainty and doubt so the science illiterate masses can run and put their heads in the sand and moan about how they fear their trendy counter tops.

100pCi, harrumph. I am sitting here at my desk emitting at about 100,000pCi from the Potassium in my body, I do not think I am afraid of the 100pCi counter just because it gives off 100pCi. (check out how you and the banana you had for breakfast are radioactive too, more radioactive that that counter we should fear: http://www.ead.anl.gov/pub/doc/potassium.pdf

Remember the Pico Curie is only related to the number of radioactive decays per second, this tells you very little. There are more important factors like energy level, kind or radiation, location of exposure, etc. At 4pCi/Liter of air, Radon can be dangerous, this is because it is an Alpha emitter that you breath into your lungs where the large powerful Alpha particles can do real damage. Note an Alpha emitter on your counter is largely harmless as paper and the layer of dead skin on your surface stops them.

At 2,000 pCi/Liter (500 times the safe limit for Radon in air), Milk is a part of this nutritious breakfast and not dangerous. There are many radioactive things that you encounter every day and they do not kill you, make you glow, cause cancer, or give you super powers. Knowing something is radioactive is only part of the equation.

When will the world notice that the inability to understand the most basic science is a problem that in our modern times is more widespread and dangerous than illiteracy.

Do not fear your counter and do not fear the banana.

Note your sheet rock/plaster, concrete, bricks, dirt in your back yard, wood furniture, bright orange fiesta ware, old Coleman lantern mantles, that ugly old green-yellow glass dish from your aunt Agnus, cat, and dog are also radioactive. The only way you can get away from it all is to float high in the sky, but then you have to worry about cosmic rays, x-rays, and gamma rays from space...bummer if you fear all radiation.

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