Granite, Uranium, Onion
The Onion's "American Voices" covered a recent issue (see here in the New York Times, for instance) that some people are paying attention to: radiation emitted by granite countertops.Because granite contains some uranium (different levels in different granites), some folks are getting upset that their fancy, expensive granite countertops could actually be emitting radiation into their kitchens. But, as the article points out, it's not really all that much in the grand scheme of things.
One final note: the image used to illustrate the story (shown here) is apparently the exact same variety of garnetiferous granite gneiss that my father recently chose for his countertops, when renovating his kitchen! I'll have to bring the Geiger counter over there next time I visit...
1 Comments:
Granite should also contain radioactive potassium - and gives an increased Geiger counter (or scintillometer) reading with or without any presence of uranium. In the field, granitic batholiths like the Sierra Nevada batholith have a noticeably higher background readings than limestones. A typical background reading in an area underlain by granite would be 350 - 500 compared to readings of 150 - 250 in limestone terrains. I don't remember the measurement units, and the actual numbers might vary with different kinds of scintillometers.
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