solidsurfacealliance.org Blog

This is interesting. This writer of this article interviewed me a few weeks back, about the time of the New York Times story. Dr. Chiodo as usual, told it like it is. The only opposing reasonable voice was a lawyer that specialized in defending toxic cases. He bases his doubts on the levels of radiation from granite, without knowing exactly what that those levels are. This is a re occuring theme with the “experts” when they respond in the media.

Of course the MIA was interviewed and made these claims.

“The highest recorded emission rates were hundreds to thousands of times lower than EPA safety guidelines.”

Of course the MIA did not mention that the study they paid Dr. Chyi to produce showed Crema Bordeaux emitting .27 pCi/L, which is about one fourteenth the EPA action level. So much for their claim of hundreds or thousands of times the action levels.

The MIA also had this to say.

“To meet the EPA guidelines for action, 4 picocuries per liter, emissions from a typical granite countertop would have to be approximately 2,600 becquerels, a figure that equals 2,000 times the highest emission rates reported in scientific journals. ”

To put that figure into perspective, let’s look at a Chinese study that also measured the radiation in Becquerels.

In this study, they found Radium levels (Radium is the parent element of Radon, all this Radium eventually becomes Radon, so the two elements will be in equilibrium) from 16 to 204 Bq per kilo gram. Now, the average granite countertop weighs 1,000 pounds (55 square feet), so there are 454 kilograms per countertop. That gives between 7,272 and 92,616 Bq (Becquerels) present per counter top! From 2.7 to 35.62 times what the MIA says is too much!

Another thing stands out, the MIA claim the 2,600 Bq was 2,000 times the highest emission rates reported in scientific journals. That would calculate out to 1.3 Bq per Kilo gram. Since the Chinese study found from 16 to 204 Bq per kilo gram, one wonders why the MIA would claim that granite had so little Radon present?

The MIA’s estimate of 1.3 Bq per Kilo gram matches what the EPA once thought the average granite contained. Being the supposed experts on granite, this seems troubling. Surely granite being found near Uranium quarries would have been tested, indeed there are those who say the MIA knew long ago that there was an issue.

We did get a mention at the bottom of the article, and a quote.

The Daily Record, a Maryland Newspaper