Emitting Uranium and Radon, the Granite Counter Tops Craze is Finally Over

Flipper Bowl Sink with Subway Tile!

So remember when it seemed you couldn't blink without someone you knew, somewhere, putting in granite counter tops and one of those crazy bowl-shaped sinks?  Well, like all trends, this one seemed to jump the shark when the housing market finally slammed into the cold hard granite of reality.  Now, an article from the NY Times about high levels of radiation being emitted from said granite counter-tops.  Yuppies everywhere are cursing the lemming-like choice of materials they had expensively installed in their showroom kitchens:

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.

...The granite, it turned out, contained high levels of uranium, which is not only radioactive but releases radon gas as it decays. “The health risk to me and my family was probably small,” Dr. Sugarman said, “but I felt it was an unnecessary risk.”

Thankfully, as one subject of the article so aptly points out, most of these people aren't spending much time in the kitchens anyway.  But that doesn't mean they aren't furious that their conspicuous consumption is threatening to kill them.

And for all you fashionable renters, relax: you can breathe easy as you wipe down that tile and go back to browsing Apartment Therapy.