And away we go
My beloved New York Times ran an article in their Home and Garden section last week that has me bracing for a fallout. The piece was titled What's Lurking in Your Countertops and it talks about the radioactivity of granite counters.
OK, disclosure time. I have always known that granite counters were radioactive, but I have never mentioned it to a client. I've never mentioned it specifically to avoid the paranoid ramblings embodied by that Times article.
And this:
But maximum telling of all became this little tidbit:
I can see all the quartz producers getting their press releases together already. But newsflash; quartz is any other radioactive, igneous rock. And considering quartz countertop substances like Silestone and Zodiaq are made from quartz and different stone aggregates they are going to be radioactive too.
None of that is any sort of breaking information nor is it in any way a fitness hazard. The final factor from that article I had to see which will judge the complete flap ludicrous turned into this:
Sadly, on the subject of technological know-how versus the cult of private injury inside the court docket, technology appears to lose whenever. Don't agree with the hype!
Personal harm lawyers are already advertising and marketing on the Web for customers who suppose they'll have been injured with the aid of countertops.
Allegations that granite counter tops may emit dangerous tiers of radon and radiation have been raised periodically over the past decade, in most cases with the aid of makers and vendors of competing countertop substances. The Marble Institute of America has said such claims are ?Ludicrous? Due to the fact despite the fact that granite is thought to incorporate uranium and different radioactive materials like thorium and potassium,the quantities in countertops are not enough to pose a health hazard.
David J. Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University in New York, said the cancer danger from granite counter tops, even those emitting radiation above background stages, is ?At the order of one in one million.? Being struck by lightning is more likely.
Indeed, health physicists and radiation specialists agree that maximum granite countertops emit radiation and radon at extremely low degrees. They say these emissions are insignificant as compared with so-called heritage radiation that is constantly dropping rain from outer area or seeping up from the earth?S crust,now not to mention emanating from man made sources like X-rays, luminous watches and smoke detectors.
I actually have never heard any other kitchen clothier or granite dealer point out it. I can not imagine very lots of them are aware that it's far. Until closing Thursday, I notion it become my move to endure on my own. But wait, it is now not a pass in any respect. Granite is radioactive. So what? Radiation isn't always any greater inherently horrific than rain is. People turn out after they hear that word. Radiation. There I stated it again. Radiation isn't the boogey man underneath the mattress. It's a natural manner which you and I are surrounded by way of always. Natural, history radiation is to a nuclear bomb what a raindrop is to a flood. You can no sooner manage or cast off background radiation than you could the rain.If you study the article carefully sufficient, there are some calm and rational voices which are all however drowned out with the aid of the hypochondriacal author. To Wit:
