However keep in mind that avoiding granite countertops does not mean you avoid radiation or radon gas emissions in your home.
Is there radiation in granite.
It does pay to find out for sure if there are harmful levels of radioactive elements in your granite countertops.
Children and developing fetuses are vulnerable to radiation which can cause other forms of cancer.
However in some instances tests have found that granite countertops give off potentially dangerous levels of radiation.
Potassium 40 is a radioactive isotope of weak emission and a constituent of alkali feldspar which in turn is a common component of granitic rocks more abundant in alkali feldspar granite and syenites.
The lowdown on granite radiation.
While there are no radiation exposure standard standards specific to granite counter tops there are two standards that may be referenced in any professional evaluation.
At most only a tiny percentage of them have been tested for radon or radiation levels but a recent test of 13 types of granite typically used for countertops found no radon or very low levels of.
While radon gas and radiation emission levels attributable to granite are not typically high there are simply too many variables to generalize about the emissions from granite countertops.
It s not true that all granite countertops emit alarming amounts of radon.
Use the radiation dose calculator to estimate your yearly dose from sources of ionizing radiation.
Granite is a natural source of radiation like most natural stones.
It is extremely unlikely that radiation from granite countertops would increase annual radiation doses above normal natural background levels.
After all there are always exceptions to the rule.
However any radiation present would decrease quickly with increasing distance from the source.
If it emits radon it typically does so at very low levels.