We finially have the Forum up for the Solid Surface Alliance. Unregistered guests can browse all but one of the catagories, but if you want to ask a question or comment, you need to register. Registeration is easy, fill out the usual form, the system will email you with a link to activate your account, then just log in as usual.

The forum is brand new, so there won’t be much content until the membership grows, so add a question or comment if you visit to help get the conversations going. New forums are tough to start, people look around, see little going on, and leave. But, with the volumne of questions we get from the public, this forum will save lots of time and make the answers available for all interested internet viewers to find.

There is one section off limits to all but invited members, that is the Scientific Section which is dedicated for those who are working on the issues. There they can spreak freely, bounce ideas off each other, and not worry about info getting picked up and repeated elsewhere before the proper time.

Please contact us if you have any problems signing up or logging on. Remember you MUST click on the link in the email that is sent to you to activate your account. You might have to scroll down one page when you open the email to find the activation link.

Thanks,
Al
For more info, to ask questions, or to find a tester, go to forum.solidsurfacealliance.org

Several ways to get your countertops checked for radiation.

Radon companies some times have Geiger Counters or Scintillators.

Some times the State or local college will send someone out with a meter. We tend to discourage this, prefering to use them to document a previously documented hot top.

Some Enviromental companies will do this for a fee, usually a large fee.

Or you can look on our list of people that have the proper equipment and experience to do an informal test. Some of these people are retired experts, graduate students, experienced radiation enthusiasts, or moonlighting professionals. The equipment will vary from basic to quite elaborate. The point is to find out if you have a high enough level of radiation for concern, not provide a extremely accurate reading, something that is difficult with hand held meters.

New people sign up every day, so ask if you don’t see someone near your city and we will ask around in the radiation forums.

Here is the areas covered so far. Replace the “at” with @ (keeps the spam bots away)

Arizona

Phoneix, Steve Jones, LENi Omega, steve “at” rustyknives.com

California
Pleasanton, 40 miles North of San Jose, Craig , zplash “at” gmail.com
Bakersfield, John, CDV 700 basic Geiger Counter, no Alpha, jbls “at” bak.rr.com
San Jose, Linda Kincaid, Certified Industrial Hygienist, nanosafety “at” gmail.com

Colorodo

Denver area, Front Range area, Richard Westfall, spaceguy2008 ” at” aol.com

Florida
Stuart, Associated Radon Services, a professional lab, web site at www.radonserv.com

Illinois
Chicago (Vernon Hills in the north) Doug Troglodite ” at” aol.com
Chicago Radon Ron, professional Radon/radiation testers radonron “at” mac.com
Chicago, Nancy Baker, njbakerco “at” btc-bci.com

Indiana

Nancy Baker, njbakerco “at” btc-bci.com

Michagan
Saginaw, Tracy Albert, thealbert “at” earthlink.net
Nancy Baker, njbakerco “at” btc-bci.com

Missouri
St Louis area, Jim Hickinbotham, rabid “at” unclerabid.com
Ron, Ludlum Model #3, jean-claude “at” hughes.net

Montana
Missoula, Eberline RM-14 with a HP 260 pancake probe, Ken Cook, wellsia “at” yahoo.com

Nevada
Las Vegas, Dudley Emer, extensive list of equipment available, dfemer “at” cox.net

Pennslyvania
State College, Steve Poterala, scintillator and Geiger counter sfp908 “at” psu.edu

Erie, Jim, lots of equipment keylimepie2″at”verizon.net

Philadelphia, Aaron, Eberline ESP-1 scintillor and a LENi pancake, aaron”at” muderick.com

Oklahoma
Oklahoma City area, Al Gerhart, LENi Geiger counter, PM 1703,
al “at”thecarpentershop.net

Yukon area, Chris Cavanaugh, extensive equipment PM 1703, cav427 “at” cox.net

Tennesse,
Nashville, Robert Drueker, LENi Geiger Counter, robertdruecker “at” msn.com

Texas
Houston, Mike Loughlin & son, CDV 700 with Data log, loughlin3 “at” sbcglobal.net

South Carolina
Greenville, Steve Poterala’s dad, scintillator, sfp908 “at” psu.edu
Washington
Snohomish, PM 1703 and a Ludlum, Ed Garrett, garrett_ew “at” comcast.net

Alamogordo, New Mexico, Danny, dahur1″at”q.com

If you need testing, just add a comment, be sure to do the “at” thing so spam bots don’t pick up your email address.

In some cases, testing by a professional firm is the way to go, especially if the granite is found to have a high level of radiation after an informal test. But even if the informal test shows little radiation, having the peace of mind and something in writing (an email will do just fine) that says their granite is a low level radiation for when they sell their home.

If you need a test done, contact us at al@solidsurfacealliance.org and we will try to find someone nearby with a proper meter. We leave the details up to the two of you, but feed back would be nice on how the test went.

I was replying to a few forums today on these issues and decided to save some of the more repetitive excuses not to take this seriously.

First is the distance the radiation can travel. We have run tests in our own shop with a 220 uR/hr source (Niagara Gold, the parent slab of that chunk in both the NY Times and the CBS Morning show.

At four inches, celery chopping length (!), 2,280 counts per minute (each count is a burst of radiation hitting the meter) That meter is buzzing pretty good.

Even at six feet, the radiation is still high, double background. That is hardly non existent radiation.

“Worrying about a couple extra micro REMs of exposure per year is nothing.”

How about .7 mR/hr Gamma? Saturday I sent a sample that read just that. Want an extra 511 mR/yr per year with your Cheerios?

The Niagara Gold in the stories, .220 mR, 160 mR/yr. How about that?

“The extra exposure from “unusually” radioactive granite? I’d say at most would be ~1% of normal background exposure.”

Background is 6o cpm, see the above list for that CBS/NYT slab. Looks like you are off by 84,000 times for the oncontact measurement of that sample.

“I suggest you all read some actual scientific facts about radiation risks and nuclear power.”

There is the problem, someone that thinks if we can’t sell radioactive granite countertops, we can’t have nuclear power.

“The industry is already trying to set some standards”.

The MIA is attempting to set some standards, about like letting the felons decide what we jail people for. One problem, one of their scientists they named a few weeks ago has jumped ship. Two of the others are jokes, one said only .85 of a radioactive decay per year from a large countertop. Idiot, each click on a Geiger Counter is a decay being detected and you have a very small target catching a tiny portion of the radiation being released. There are billions, even trillions of decays per year from a medium hot top.

Another of their “experts” has a habit of being hired as the second scientist for the EPA, after the first one won’t say what the powers that be want him to say.

The last one left, Dr. Chyi, sent me a very nasty email after I asked a simple question, was the report being used by the MIA the same one that he wrote. A scientist that gets offended at questions is a scientist that has something to hide.

Oh, the one that jumped ship? He not only answered questions, he offered to send me the data tables from the study I was asking questions about. Most scientists I have emailed have done the same.

This scientist, a good one in my opinion, is starting another group to set protocols for testing. Completely independent of the MIA or BuildCLean.org. I like it.

“Regulation is not what we need” .

The Chinese regulate granite radiation levels, Class A, B, C and Below C. Only Class A is allowed to be used in homes. Many other countries, including most EU countries regulate radiation in building materials.

“There is no danger from these granite counter tops. I have a Ph.D. in the field of radiology. ”

And you don’t know squat about the radiation levels being found. Are you saying that .7 mR/hr Gamma is okay for consumer products? Again, if you sell X rays or Cat Scans, you do want people to accept high radiation levels as “safe”. X rays are a risk, but it is a known risk that has a potential benefit.

“Surely these companies won’t dig up radioactive granite for home use”.

These companies know exactly what they are digging up and selling. They are actually conducting a lawsuit in Namibian courts, suing an Uranium company for the right to quarry granite next door to an Uranium mine in Namibia.

Fighting over the same granite, countertops or nuclear fuel?

“How long has the granite industry known about this issue?”

This debate has been raging in the countertop industry since 1995, has been beaten down several times by the MIA. This time we organized, gathered allies, and broke the story. One huge granite importer (owns one of the Nambian quarry the Niagara Gold granite came from) admitted yesterday that their purchasing manager has known about this issue for about a year and a half. Strangely, they blame me for not calling and telling them, but their purchasing manager was debating the issue with me last may!

“Aren’t the workers most at risk?”

The worker is the most at hazard, and don’t let anyone cut a slab in your home (sink cut out) or drill any holes if possible on the higher level stones. In addition to the silica (silicosis), granite is loaded with heavy metals (Cadium, Arsenic, lead, Chromium, a very long and toxic list), as well as the radioactive dust inhaled. We started using HEPA filters after we learned of the high radiation levels in the dust.

“But bananas and brazil nuts are radioiactive too.”

Sorry, bananas aren’t very radioactive. I heard of a guy that reduced 100# of bananas to ash before he could measure the radiation.

A researcher with the Dept of Health at NY state, Dr. Kitto studied Brazil nuts and found around 1 pCi/G of Radium, less than the average soil content, far less than the 1,130 pCi/G of Radium found in the Bordeaux granite countertop found in the Houston story.

Twenty eight. grams of Brazil nuts would contain .008 uR of Radium, compared to a granite countertop that can have thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands times more radiation.

Thanks to Dr. Kitto for sharing the results of this study on Brazil nuts.

I would highly recomend this lab if you are worried about your granite. An inexpensive Radon test kit would be another way, but for a guaranteed result, send these guys a small sample. Perhaps a sink cutout or a sample knocked off the corner of a slab.

1) Radon emanation from surface test result unit will be pCi/sq.ft./second
4-14 day turaround, sample size must accomodate ,minimum 9″ diameter circle,
$ 75.00 per sample

2) Radon emanating Radium 226 fraction test unit will be pCi/gram and euilibirum level Rn222 Pci/l inside chamber/gram (or area if I can come up with a K ), 8 – 30 day turnaround, sample size must pass through a 3.5″ dia hole and no longer than 6″ (can change if any demand ) , $ 75.00 per sample up to 9, 10 or more together $50.00 per

Must ship UPS, FEDEx ground, or DHL no motor freight ; at this time we have 52 emenation chamber capacity ; contect KMLevy@radonserv.com or wlevy@radonserv.com

Bill
William Levy

ASSOCIATED RADON SERVICES
Fl DOH and NRPP Certified Analytical Radon Laboratory
5136 SE Orange St. Stuart, FL 34997
800-741-0629 772-219-4334
Fax 772-287-1341
www.radonserv.com wlevy@radonserv.com