Comments on Kitchen and Residential Design: Are my counters giving me a headache? Part two: ra...

thanks paul, great article. as someone who is very...

2011-03-28T02:14:07.327-04:00

thanks paul, great article. as someone who is very concerned about ecological sustainability i hope you dont put 'organic' in the huckster category. for what it's worth i am a skeptic and have also had good experiences with reiki (i am truly a skeptic, i went to a hypnotist once and she did the whole thing and said 'now your hypnotized, and you will da da da' and i was like no, i'm not...). we have electricity, it is why heart zappers bring us out of heart attacks etc and 'back to life', reiki is just a way of working with the body's natural energy. i dont think all practitioners are actually any good/doing anything, i think there are fakes and just misguided people in any industry, but that doesnt invalidate the whole movement. did you know double blind, peer reviewed studies showed that people who were Prayed for remotely, by strangers, got healthier than those who were not? weird. i would not have guessed that outcome. so it's a complicated world. but keep up the good work on educating people about granite. i would a million times over have a natural stone from the earth in my home, than a ton o' nasty unsustainable plastic. solid surface is one of my least favorite counter materials of all kinds.

LOL... I'm glad to know another "high inf...

2010-04-23T12:06:47.581-04:00

LOL... I'm glad to know another "high information type". Some days it is such a curse.. brain will not move forward until last bit of info dissected, processed and filed.

BTW my last home had granite countertops and I just loved them. I wish I had paid the upgrade to get them again for this kitchen. Argggh!

Brava! Thanks for the heads up and the correction....

2010-04-23T11:03:11.989-04:00

Brava! Thanks for the heads up and the correction. You're a woman after my own heart. I can't rest until I know and understand something either. I don't doubt that excessive exposure to radon is a bad thing, the problem comes from setting the bar so low that it's unachievable. Life has risks and it's impossible to eliminate them.

That study does a great job of pointing out that it's nearly impossible to determine a cause and effect for cancer. Cancer's a process that needs a bunch of things in order to happen. "Radon exposure caused my lung cancer" is a really flawed way to phrase the very real problem of environmentally acquired lung cancer.

The lack of rigor in in the popular press when it comes to science reporting drives me nuts and when it's led by personal injury attorneys and not actual scientists, we end up with zero tolerances for radon, an impossible and wasteful goal.

Found it... becquerels (radon disintegrations per...

2010-04-23T10:51:44.396-04:00

Found it... becquerels (radon disintegrations per second) per cubic metre (Bq/m3) Terminology must be like the imperial / metric thing. An analysis of data from 13 European case-control studies produced an article saying residential radon is not a significant lung cancer issue for non-smokers but is for smokers. Dah.. go figure huh? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15613366

Thanks Christine, I'm glad you made the whole ...

2010-04-23T08:23:30.506-04:00

Thanks Christine, I'm glad you made the whole way through these radon/ radiation posts. I'm wildly proud of them and I fear that not enough people actually read them for them to do a whole lot of good. Radiation is a hot button word. A lot of people hear the word and then panic before they can learn anything about what it is. It's frustrating.

The term you're thinking of is picocuries. Picocuries are one of the ways used to indicate a level of radiation present in a given environment.

You bet radon testing is a big industry. There's a lot of money to be made from ignorance and a lack of understanding. People spend more money when they're afraid.

The suppository thing came about as I was researching for this piece. Radon and radioactive elements are relatively new discoveries and back when scientists were figuring out that they exist, hucksters touted them as an elixir and cure all. Sort of the way hucksters tout anti-oxidants, herbal supplements and organic everything now.

I feel like I'm tilting against windmills when I write things like this and I am happy to hear that you found this to be useful.

Oh ya... and I wanted to ask you where on earth wo...

2010-04-23T03:35:30.914-04:00

Oh ya... and I wanted to ask you where on earth would you have come to know about those radon suppositories hmmm????

Wow interesting stuff!!! Around 1990 the Canadian ...

2010-04-23T03:33:28.496-04:00

Wow interesting stuff!!! Around 1990 the Canadian real estate industry was all on edge about radon gas. I think the unit measurement was "beckerals"(sp?) US acceptable levels were around 300 units and the Canadian level was something like 850.

Radon inspectors tried hard to storm the home buyer's market. I think they migrated south to the US as I understand radon is still an issue for home buyers with fairly strict disclosure requirements in some states. Radon testing is a HUGE industry!

While I was waiting in my accountant's office yesterday, I read a joke/pun in the Reader's Digest about granite counters and geiger counters. Being a word nerd I thought it was hysterical. Never in a million years would I have guessed that people were truly fussing about radon gas in their granite counters.

Well Paul... once again you have shed a bright light in a very dark corner of my world. When you come to Canada to redo my kitchen I think we should just nix the counters and add more vending machines.:)

PS... I am so impressed with your BFF scientist too!!

Thanks Leona! And yes, there's an enormous amo...

2009-06-06T12:12:47.539-04:00

Thanks Leona! And yes, there's an enormous amount of hype surrounding Radon. I find this particularly enraging because the hype discourages an accurate appraisal of what can be a real problem in some cases. Radon can be dangerous, but it is only rarely dangerous. I specifically sought out the help of a physicist with this series of posts because the real, calmly delivered, accurate information on this and so many other hyped problems can only come from the people who study it for a living. Share the love, hug a scientist today!

Wow, a kitchen designer who knows his products fro...

2009-06-06T12:05:01.589-04:00

Wow, a kitchen designer who knows his products from the atom up. You set the bar very high!

I think radon is mostly a media created boogeyman, like killer bees from Africa.

Better to make sure a pro installs your gas lines, then get a good nights sleep!

Thanks for the clear, comprehensive explanation.

Glad to hear it Kelly! I learned a lot in writing ...

2009-06-05T23:20:14.049-04:00

Glad to hear it Kelly! I learned a lot in writing that too. Radiation's a pretty generic term and it describes both harmless and dangerous kinds of radiation. It's a wildly interesting subject, but then again I'm a geek when it comes to this kind of stuff.

You obviously put a lot of time, thought, and rese...

2009-06-05T23:15:01.676-04:00

You obviously put a lot of time, thought, and research into these two Radon posts. It's great that you explained everything so clearly and thoroughly -- thanks!!

I think when people hear the word "radiation", they automatically think "cancer". And to be honest, I had no idea that harmless radiation is happening all around us all the time.

Tomorrow we're going to check out a couple more slabs of granite :-) We ain't afraid of no Radon!! ;-)

Kelly

You are most welcome Brenda. I appreciate your spe...

2009-06-05T16:31:10.540-04:00

You are most welcome Brenda. I appreciate your spending time around here. Have a great weekend too!

Thank you for the award Paul. I am deeply honoure...

2009-06-05T16:08:56.519-04:00

Thank you for the award Paul. I am deeply honoured.
Have a great weekend!

Thanks Brenda, you win the endurance award! I know...

2009-06-05T15:59:21.559-04:00

Thanks Brenda, you win the endurance award! I know that they were pretty long posts and I applaud you for sticking it out. I think it's pretty important information and I hope that people get something from them. I learned a ton putting them together I know that much.

Read both the posts Paul. Very interesting and ar...

2009-06-05T15:57:30.872-04:00

Read both the posts Paul. Very interesting and articulate!