Aug

14

Radioactive Kitchens?

Filed Under Home Renovation and Maintenance, News | 1 Comment

granite countertop

As a luxury real estate sales professional, I make sure my buyers are making a sound investment by encouraging them to get a professional home inspection. The purpose of a home inspection is to discover hidden defects that are not obvious during a casual walkthrough.

In the City of Chicago, our inspections rarely include testing for radon gas. Radon comes from the ground, and the test is therefore typically conducted in basements. Usually this simply involves leaving a radon meter in the home for 48 hours. Obviously, for condos and other properties that are above street level, this would be a non-issue.

Recently, however, I read a disturbing article in The New York Times that warns about a possible new, invisible danger for homeowners.

What’s Lurking in Your Countertop?

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.

And in case that doesn’t make you nervous:

“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.”

Frightening stuff. For many people, the kitchen is the most important room in their home, and nothing’s scarier than knowing (or not knowing!) that you and your family are being exposed to invisible, cancer-causing rays there.

As always, however, the important thing to remember is the numbers.

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.

I contacted some of the inspectors I know about this issue.

Ed Wengren of Home Touch Inspection, who our team uses for our radon inspections, test solely for ground-based radon, but he confirmed that state inspection guidelines instruct them to keep their meters away from granite in homes to prevent their readings from being thrown off.

Radon Detection Specialists, which serves Northern Illinois, recommends testing kits sold at hardware stores (and which they carry for $25) for concerned homeowners who want to test their granite for harmful emissions. RDS’s technicians can also perform more thorough tests on granite. They said, however, that they’ve yet to encounter a kitchen with the kind of alarming emissions showcased in the Times article.

As a Realtor and not a radiation expert, I can’t give specific advice on this subject. However, if you have granite in your home (or are considering installing it), you can read the full article and decide for yourself if buying a testing kit or contacting professionals like the ones above is in your family’s best interest.


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