Granite counter tops may nuke your food
While planning that coveted green kitchen redesign, you might want pay extra close attention to what kind of counter tops you choose. I know, all the design magazines out there show kitchens decked out with those easy-to-clean, indestructible granite counters -- but there's a catch. Aside from the extremely energy-intensive extraction and transportation process that this stone goes through on the way to your kitchen, it might also be radioactive. Seriously.Experts maintain that its exceedingly rare to find a counter that poses any serious health risks. Still, with the ballooning popularity of the stone, and the many exotic locations that the stone is coming from, it's hard for anyone to keep track of which stones contain which levels of radioactive materials like uranium, thorium or even potassium. According to the EPA, they've been getting swarmed with questions about the safety of granite. They recommend taking action if radon measurements exceed 4 picocuries, one woman's counter top in New Jersey was emitting 100 picocuries -- one of the more extreme cases.
[via Treehugger]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-25-2008 @ 5:14PM
gustavion said...
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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8-03-2008 @ 7:13PM
Steve Gates said...
Take a look at my new project:
www.greendayeveryday.com
7-25-2008 @ 5:38PM
Chris Bosdal said...
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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7-28-2008 @ 7:21PM
Mr. Glow said...
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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