Radioactivity Is The Latest Worry For Homeowners

This just in from the Department of I Can’t Make This Stuff Up:

HOUSTON — A physics professor at Rice University is warning of a radioactive threat found in some kitchen countertops.

Some granite countertops contain levels of uranium high enough to be dangerous to humans, said Rice professor W.J. Llope.

Using a spectrometer, Llope tested 25 varieties of granite bought from Houston-area dealers. In some cases, he said, he found countertops that could expose homeowners to 100 millirems of radiation in just a few months — the annual exposure limit set by the Department of Energy for visitors to nuclear labs.

"There should be some oversight in this," Llope said in a story Saturday in the Houston Chronicle. "This isn’t something customers should have to do, not something they should have to lay awake worrying themselves to death about."

Llope’s findings remain unpublished, although he said he plans to seek publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

"I’m not claiming that people necessarily will get very sick or die of cancer within months," Llope said. "But if you spend 10 years in that kitchen there is a risk you may end up with cancer. It might or might not be attributed to granite. Who would know?"

A spokesman for the Marble Institute of America, a trade group that represents the granite industry, warned of "junk science." Jim Martinez also cited a University of Akron study that found granite varieties used in 85 percent of countertops were safe.

Still, Martinez said, the trade group is assembling scientists to develop a protocol for testing granite for radioactivity.

"There’s been a lot of junk science passed off as real science," said the spokesman, Jim Martinez. "We want to establish scientific standards and protocol that would allow consistent testing in a logical way."

As many as 1,600 varieties of granite from 64 countries are sold for household use in the United States. None of them is routinely tested for radioactivity.

I am waiting for the day they tell us EVERYTHING causes cancer.

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