Only if one falls on you.
LOL.......
Personally, I’m going to mine $6,000 worth of countertop for $1.87 worth of GOLD content......
Mountain out of a molehill. The number of consumers who will make their choice between natural granite versus engineered stone based on “radiation” is so negligible as to be ridiculous. Granite countertops raise the resale value of a home no doubt. The fact is that 99.99% of the population could not tell the difference between natural and engineered stone if their lives depended on it. For most people it will come down to a question of price and being able to get the best bang for their buck.
No, but bad for my bank account. If it were more affordable, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
The radon racket must feel overshadowed by the global warming climate change racket.
In order to keep the radon out, I filled all the cracks with asbestos. Then I applied a coat of lead paint.
bump for later
I don’t care - my granite is gorgeous!
First off there is plenty of scientific proof that natural stone can emit enough Radon to raise the levels in homes, indeed any certified Radon tech will tell you not to place a detector on a granite countertop. Build clean has a dozen or two scientific studies from around the world on granite emitting Radon. Dozens of countries, Germany, Austria, every EU country, Canada, and a host of others including China limit the radiation levels in their building materials. To say that Build Clean has offered no proof is completely unethical. Hulligar is depending on people being too lazy to go look for themselves.
Yes, one of the sponsors is Silestone, but Hulligar neglects to mention that Silestone also sells the Sensa line of natural granite. Why would they say their own product needs testing? Because it does, they have a large potential liability hanging over their head from past sales and they are attempting to get the industry to start testing prior to sale.
“Simply put, think of natural stone as a very dense sponge that allows water, air and yes radon to pass through the stone. Once the stone is removed from the source of radon (the earth) the stone has no radon to filter through it.
We do endorse Radon testing but to allude that natural stone is a main contributor seems ludicrous.”
The above statement written by Hulligar is a bald face lie or complete ignorance if you want to give him the benefit of the doubt. Stone is indeed porous due to the shrinkage of the quartz as it cools from magma. The rest of the quote would be ludicrous if it wasn't completely untrue. The source of the Radon from granite is the uranium content that is slowly decaying in place, when it gets to about the fifth of 14 steps, it turns in to a noble gas, Radon, and can escape the stone through the fissures. Radon itself is not dangerous until it enters your lungs and decays, which gives off alpha radiation as the Radon turns into one of several elements in turn, bismuth, poloinum, lead isotopes, each in turn continue to emit radiation as it breaks down.
To claim that granite or any natural stone with an uranium content will somehow “air out”, is a bald face lie. The stone will continue to emit radon for millions of years to come.
In the original TV report, the scientist did say that if you open your windows for a half day every three weeks that will prevent Radon from building up to equilibrium, or the highest possible levels. But that does nothing to prevent someone near the granite top from breathing the concentated gas emitting from the source while using the granite countertop. So you can do as Hulligar says, use a small fan like a vent a hood to continually vent your kitchen, if you don't mind high utility bills to cool or heat the incoming air.
“Levels of radiation from granite products, which technically are measurable, are in fact, small fractional values of established thresholds for environmental safety.’
Another outright lie, numerous scientific studies have shown granites that exceed safe levels of radiation and Radon gas emission. In fact, the Chinese report that as much as 20% of their quarried stones fail to meet safe levels. China will not allow any high level stone to be imported either, they turn it away from the docks. On Youtube.com there are videos posted showing as much as 800 uR/hr of Gamma radiation coming off a granite countertop slab. Some colors like the Bordeauxs are generally hot, 100 uR/hr is common. Juparana Bordeaux was the material in the Houston TV story, I have the lab report on the countertop posted on a website showing over 950 pCi/g of radium! The EPA once thought that granite only had 1.3 pCi/g radium, but now they are recommending any home with a granite countertop have the home tested for Radon.
And that mathematical model Hulligar speaks of? An article paid for by the Marble Institute by a retired geologist, not a nuclear physicist. Not peer reviewed, not published, just a paid for opinion that met their propaganda needs.
Next Hulligar trots out the 4 ppm of uranium like it was an average. Try hundreds of ppm of uranium in some granite countertop materials. The mining leases for Uranium mines and granite counterop quarries over lap in many places. One of our suppliers found that there was a Uranium mine less than a mile and a half from one of his source quarries, which is why some types of his granite were too hot to sell.
And that bit about 270,000 times less Radon from granite than outside air? Hogwash, outside air usually averages .4 pCi/Liter and the MIA report (Marble Institute) showed one granite, a Bordeaux, emitting up to .28 pCi/Liter, about 70% of outside air! What happened to the 270,000 times less?
Next Hulligar quotes the MIA again, saying that a few inches of air will stop all the radiation. Bull...., on youtube there are videos showing the radiation reaching out three to eight feet. Even the Beta radiation will penetrate your body, much less the Gamma. One of the problems of surveying slab yards is that a hot slab can affect the readings of slabs ten feet away, you have to isolate a slab to get a true reading.
And these meters we used in these videos, well they are from 10% to 30% effective depending on the type of radiation and the energy levels. Far more radiation is hitting the meter than can be recorded.
And the most laughable quote of all
“This represents 0.85 decays per year. In other words, less than one atom of radon is produced by the countertop in one year.”
Do these morons not realize that every click on a geiger counter or scintillator is a decay of an atom? Some of the videos we posted show up to 4,000 counts per minute! The Houston granite countertop was at almost 1,000 cpm from the Radium alone. That granite top raised the Radon from near zero to 3 pCi/liter, thousands of decays per quart of air per minute.
Really, in the history of the internet, there has been no other group that has attempted to tell such blatent lies as the MIA and its minions. They are protecting a 14 year old lie, that granite has no radiation or Radon. Their own report by Dr. Chyi showed 292 times more Radon than some of the other samples. I shake my head in wonder at the pure b*lls, the shear size and scope of the lies being told.
I apologize for the long post, but every single paragraph of Hulligars post can be torn to shreds using scientific studies from around the world. And think hard about this, if the communist Chinese are willing to limit radionucliedes in their granite, why are we still allowing the high level granites to be sold to unsuspecting consumers here in the USA?
If it is so safe, why in the world are they opposing the testing????? Really, Hulligar, have some shame dude...