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What’s Lurking in Your Countertop?
By KATE MURPHY
Published: July 24, 2008
SHORTLY before Lynn Sugarman of Teaneck, N.J., bought her summer
home in Lake George, N.Y., two years ago, a routine inspection
revealed it had elevated levels of radon, a radioactive gas that
can cause lung cancer. So she called a radon measurement and
mitigation technician to find the source.
“He went from room to room,” said Dr. Sugarman, a pediatrician.
But he stopped in his tracks in the kitchen, which had richly
grained cream, brown and burgundy granite countertops. His
Geiger counter indicated that the granite was emitting radiation
at levels 10 times higher than those he had measured elsewhere
in the house.
“My first thought was, my pregnant daughter was coming for the
weekend,” Dr. Sugarman said. When the technician told her to
keep her daughter several feet from the countertops just to be
safe, she said, “I had them ripped out that very day,” and sent
to the state Department of Health for analysis. The granite, it
turned out, contained high levels of uranium, which is not only
radioactive but releases radon gas as it decays. “The health
risk to me and my family was probably small,” Dr. Sugarman said,
“but I felt it was an unnecessary risk.”
As the popularity of granite countertops has grown in the last
decade — demand for them has increased tenfold, according to the
Marble Institute of America, a trade group representing granite
fabricators — so have the types of granite available. For
example, one source, Graniteland (graniteland.com) offers more
than 900 kinds of granite from 63 countries. And with increased
sales volume and variety, there have been more reports of “hot”
or potentially hazardous countertops, particularly among the
more exotic and striated varieties from Brazil and Namibia.
“It’s not that all granite is dangerous,” said Stanley Liebert,
the quality assurance director at CMT Laboratories in Clifton
Park, N.Y., who took radiation measurements at Dr. Sugarman’s
house. “But I’ve seen a few that might heat up your Cheerios a
little.”
Allegations that granite countertops may emit dangerous levels
of radon and radiation have been raised periodically over the
past decade, mostly by makers and distributors of competing
countertop materials. The Marble Institute of America has said
such claims are “ludicrous” because although granite is known to
contain uranium and other radioactive materials like thorium and
potassium, the amounts in countertops are not enough to pose a
health threat.
Indeed, health physicists and radiation experts agree that most
granite countertops emit radiation and radon at extremely low
levels. They say these emissions are insignificant compared with
so-called background radiation that is constantly raining down
from outer space or seeping up from the earth’s crust, not to
mention emanating from manmade sources like X-rays, luminous
watches and smoke detectors.
But with increasing regularity in recent months, the
Environmental Protection Agency has been receiving calls from
radon inspectors as well as from concerned homeowners about
granite countertops with radiation measurements several times
above background levels. “We’ve been hearing from people all
over the country concerned about high readings,” said Lou Witt,
a program analyst with the agency’s Indoor Environments
Division.
Last month, Suzanne Zick, who lives in Magnolia, Tex., a small
town northwest of Houston, called the E.P.A. and her state’s
health department to find out what she should do about the
salmon-colored granite she had installed in her foyer a year and
a half ago. A geology instructor at a community college, she
realized belatedly that it could contain radioactive material
and had it tested. The technician sent her a report indicating
that the granite was emitting low to moderately high levels of
both radon and radiation, depending on where along the stone the
measurement was taken.
“I don’t really know what the numbers are telling me about my
risk,” Ms. Zick said. “I don’t want to tear it out, but I don’t
want cancer either.”
The E.P.A. recommends taking action if radon gas levels in the
home exceeds 4 picocuries per liter of air (a measure of
radioactive emission); about the same risk for cancer as smoking
a half a pack of cigarettes per day. In Dr. Sugarman’s kitchen,
the readings were 100 picocuries per liter. In her basement,
where radon readings are expected to be higher because the gas
usually seeps into homes from decaying uranium underground, the
readings were 6 picocuries per liter.
The average person is subjected to radiation from natural and
manmade sources at an annual level of 360 millirem (a measure of
energy absorbed by the body), according to government agencies
like the E.P.A. and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The limit
of additional exposure set by the commission for people living
near nuclear reactors is 100 millirem per year. To put this in
perspective, passengers get 3 millirem of cosmic radiation on a
flight from New York to Los Angeles.
A “hot” granite countertop like Dr. Sugarman’s might add a
fraction of a millirem per hour and that is if you were a few
inches from it or touching it the entire time.
Nevertheless, Mr. Witt said, “There is no known safe level of
radon or radiation.” Moreover, he said, scientists agree that
“any exposure increases your health risk.” A granite countertop
that emits an extremely high level of radiation, as a small
number of commercially available samples have in recent tests,
could conceivably expose body parts that were in close proximity
to it for two hours a day to a localized dose of 100 millirem
over just a few months.
David J. Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological
Research at Columbia University in New York, said the cancer
risk from granite countertops, even those emitting radiation
above background levels, is “on the order of one in a million.”
Being struck by lightning is more likely. Nonetheless, Dr.
Brenner said, “It makes sense. If you can choose another counter
that doesn’t elevate your risk, however slightly, why wouldn’t
you?”
Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking
and is considered especially dangerous to smokers, whose lungs
are already compromised. Children and developing fetuses are
vulnerable to radiation, which can cause other forms of cancer.
Mr. Witt said the E.P.A. is not studying health risks associated
with granite countertops because of a “lack of resources.”
The Marble Institute of America plans to develop a testing
protocol for granite. “We want to reassure the public that their
granite countertops are safe,” Jim Hogan, the group’s president,
said earlier this month “We know the vast majority of granites
are safe, but there are some new exotic varieties coming in now
that we’ve never seen before, and we need to use sound science
to evaluate them.”
Research scientists at Rice University in Houston and at the New
York State Department of Health are currently conducting studies
of granite widely used in kitchen counters. William J. Llope, a
professor of physics at Rice, said his preliminary results show
that of the 55 samples he has collected from nearby fabricators
and wholesalers, all of which emit radiation at
higher-than-background levels, a handful have tested at levels
100 times or more above background.
Personal injury lawyers are already advertising on the Web for
clients who think they may have been injured by countertops. “I
think it will be like the mold litigation a few years back,
where some cases were legitimate and a whole lot were not,” said
Ernest P. Chiodo, a physician and lawyer in Detroit who
specializes in toxic tort law. His kitchen counters are granite,
he said, “but I don’t spend much time in the kitchen.”
As for Dr. Sugarman, the contractor of the house she bought in
Lake George paid for the removal of her “hot” countertops. She
replaced them with another type of granite. “But I had them
tested first,” she said.
Where to Find Tests and Testers
TO find a certified technician to determine whether radiation or
radon is emanating from a granite countertop, homeowners can
contact the American Association of Radon Scientists and
Technologists (aarst.org). Testing costs between $100 and $300.
Information on certified technicians and do-it-yourself radon
testing kits is available from the Environmental Protection
Agency’s Web site at
epa.gov/radon, as well as from state or
regional indoor air environment offices, which can be found at
epa.gov/iaq/whereyoulive.html. Kits test for radon, not
radiation, and cost $20 to $30. They are sold at hardware stores
and online.
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