Is There Really Cancer Causing Radon in Granite Counter tops?

It wasn't until a colleague of ours, and a fellow blogger, even mentioned this shocking and scary idea- that it might be possible to contract lung cancer because we chose to update our house with granite counters.

As a real estate professional, I see that all new and updated homes have granite in the kitchens and in most baths, too. When I heard that there was a possibility that contrary to popular belief, this was a bad thing, I had to do some research of my own.

Let me first start by defining Radon for those of you like myself, who had nothing more than a loose definition in your mind. According to the EPA, "Radon is a cancer causing natural radioactive gas that you can't see, smell, or taste." It is the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers.

Radon is measured in terms of pico curies per Liter, and the EPA defines a problem to be anything greater than 4 pico curies/Liter. All of the material thus far is cold, hard facts not meant to frighten or scare anyone, but just to educate them about the basics.

As I got further into my research of this argument that the granite counter tops in our homes may be emitting radon, I found that like most controversies, there are two sides to every story. One side argues that yes indeed there is harmful radon in granite, and even goes as far as to suggest that there are higher levels in granite that contains reds, pinks, and purples. On the flip side of the argument you have granite advocates that insist that with any natural stone (granite included) there is going to be some radon due to it having come from the ground, but that the levels are so far below what the EPA has determined to be harmful, that the argument is null and void.

In many situations with real estate, I find that clients will ask questions outside of my expertise. I often tell clients that I am a professional Real Estate Broker, but I am not licensed to give advice or speak as though I were an expert on any subject other than Real Estate. I do, however, like to offer my clients my experience and a true experts opinions so that they have something to help them make their own informed decision.

With that being said, there are hundreds of do it yourself kits available online and in hardware stores that are easy to use and fairly inexpensive that will allow you to rule out whether or not there is radon in your home or one you are buying. I suggest that if this is a concern, you either do the test or hire someone to come and do one for you. I also would like to share with all of you who read my blurb two very helpful websites that I found while doing my research. They give, what I feel, is an objective view of both sides of the radon in granite argument.

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