EPA Revises Countertop/Radon Info

While the agency’s new statement – part of its Frequent Questions series for consumers – didn’t include any definitive statements about radon-gas emissions from granite countertops, it noted that the EPA held “no reliable data to conclude that types of granite used in countertops are significantly increasing indoor radon levels.”
The statement, along with several other question-answer items on radon and granite countertops, replaced a less-specific entry posted in early June on the topic.
The new EPA statement, issued at 5:43 p.m. EDT, came at the end of a heady two-day period on the radon/granite controversy, touched off by an article – “What’s Lurking in Your Countertop?” – in the July 24 New York Times Home and Garden section.
The report from Times writer Kate Murphy noted two homeowners’ – in New York and Texas – and their concerns with higher-than-normal levels of radon and radiation, along with background on the emission of radon with granite countertops. The article also quoted several scientists, a Detroit-based tort-claim lawyer, and Jim Hogan, president of the Marble Institute of America.
The Times also quoted Lou Witt, a program analyst with the EPA’s Indoor Environments Division, about calls recently concerning granite countertops and higher-than-normal radiation levels. “We’ve been hearing from people all over the country concerned about high readings,” he said, also noting that agency wasn’t studying health risks tied to granite countertops due to a “lack of resources.”
The article also quoted Stanley Liebert, the quality assurance director at CMT Laboratories in Clifton Park, N.Y., who took radiation/radon measurements for one of the homeowners cited in the piece. Liebert also made an appearance on CBS' The Early Show on the morning of July 25, showing program host Harry Smith shards of granite emitting high levels of radiation.
The Times article and the CBS report spread quickly on July 24-25, due mainly to site linking through services such as Yahoo! News and newspaper with syndication rights with the New York publication reprinting the Times piece
The EPA’s revision of its granite countertop/radon information expanded several answers with detailed explanations. For example, for the question “Are the levels dangerous to humans?” the original EPA answer stated:
There is too little information and too many variables to generalize about the potential or actual risk.
The revised answer now reads:
While radon levels attributable to granite are not typically high, there are simply too many variables to generalize about the potential health risks inside a particular home that has granite countertops. (The answer also goes on to emphasize the need to limit risks and also have a home tested for radon.)
The EPA also added six other question-answer topics on the granite/radon subject, dealing with radioactivity, testing, possible dosages from countertops, radiation regulation and countertops, testing in other countries and mining for uranium in granite deposits.
The new EPA entries were announced on services such as PR Newswire on July 25 by Cohn&Wolfe, a New York-based public-relations firm retained by the MIA.
 Early on July 26, Hogan also updated MIA members by e-mail on the situation, including the EPA revision. “The MIA called on the U.S. EPA to help calm the situation and reassure the public,” Hogan wrote. “By Friday afternoon, the agency issued aggressive, new statements reasserting the safety of granite countertops.”
Hogan also noted that MIA “invited the EPA to join our efforts to establish accepted, scientific standards for testing granite countertops.  Such standards would ensure the accuracy of tests and eliminate the fear mongering made possible by ‘junk science.’”  
He also detailed other MIA actions, including several actions on testing standards for radon, working with Consumer Reports on making their researchers on granite available to the media, and issuing talking points for dealing with the issue.
The issue generated plenty of public interest in a short amount of time, even by today’s Internet-heightened standards. Two days after appearing in print, the Times article ranked third in the “most e-mailed” category on www.nytimes.com, topped all articles for e-mail distribution during the past seven days, and came in fifth in the tally of all article e-mail referrals in the past 30 days. CBSnews.com listed the report from The Early Show as the second-most-requested on its site a day after its broadcast.
At aol.com, a recap of the CBS report included a snap reader poll. Of 15,765 readers responding, 60 percent said they didn’t have granite countertops, 21 percent said they did and the topic concerned them, and 19 percent had granite countertops and weren’t concerned. In a follow-up question, 92 percent of 14,768 respondents said they hadn’t heard about the radon/granite countertop issue before this.