On Jul 24, 2:41 pm, "David G. Nagel"
wrote:
Upscale wrote:
"Robatoy" wrote in message
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/ga...?no_interstiti...

Show the article to enough people and they might end up paying you to remove
their $5000 granite counter tops and replace them with something else.
Sounds like a money making proposition to me.

My advice to those people who think that they will get cancer from their
granite counter tops is to stay as far away from other people as they
can. Elements in the human body are also radioactive. In fact one of the
key elements needed to keep the human or any animal hear pumping is
radioactive.

That's probably potassium. IIRC the largest internal contributor
to a typical person's radiation dosage, is from K-40 in the body.
Carbon, (C-14 and C-13) comes in second.

Of course you would get along fine with only Phosphorus - 31
and C-12, isotopes are chemically identical.

Uranium is an alpha-emitter, and alphas don't get very far, not
even in air, and usually will not penetrate through clothing or
even the layer of naturally dead and dying skin sells on the surface
of one's skin. Radon is also an alpha emitter, but because it is
a gas it can be inhaled end emit the gamma inside of the lungs
where live tissue is exposed.

Because it is naturally present in granite, the granite will also
have all of the Uranium decay daughters and some of those
are gamma and beta emitters. Granites also contains
potassium-40.

That said, the figures in the articles showed that _some_ granites
are a lot hotter than others and probably should be avoided.

--

FF