It's a shame this sort of thing happens. A radiation/radon tester partnering with a countertop shop has "SCAM" written all over it. Hard to believe they're dumb enough to try it, and sad to ponder anybody dumb enough to fall for it.

This gives me the same feeling I got when I had a termite inspector out recently. I'd seen termite damage in a fence near my house. The inspector went all through my house and said we had no evidence of termites but I have "conditions conducive to termites". He recommended treatment to the tune of about $2500 (!). After that, I'd need to pay something like $400 per year to inspect and treat to keep the warranty up.

I said "conditions conducive, what does that mean? That I have wood in my house?" And he said yes. I said, is there any house where you DON'T recommend treatment? And he said "honestly, no".

Fear based marketing works, unfortunately. That is one reason I love the power of the internet, though, because we have access to information and counter-arguments at our fingertips thanks to helpful posters like you.

thanks!

Anita

And then people wondered why I stuck on Al like a pit bull. This is only the beginning.

I like foundation inspections by people that do NOT do foundation repairs. Same pricipal with the termite folks. It exist everywhere though. Not just one particular trade. Cabinet guys think you need new cabinets. Floor guys think the tile needs to be redone. Mechanics make you think it's not safe for you to get in your car and drive home unless you give them a few thousand dollars. Buyer beware. Kenneth

I guess there's a sucker born every day, and people happy to find them :o( I personally wouldn't ask the competition (solid surface) to rate my granite (isn't that kind of like asking the fox to guard the hen house?) But I'd bet someone will...and they'll be taken, given the BS these people are happy to spread. It's a sad picture of the industry, and makes a lot of good people look bad when associated with this type of thing.

For the sake of accuracy, the astericks should be considered outside the quote.

Kenneth, very true indeed. What I find particularly distasteful though is that there was an organized campaign of sorts by members of the ss industry to bring this 'healthrisk' to the limelight - done under the guise of concern. It now appears very manipulative and contrived.

Thank you Anita, what a sweet comment.

After watching this debate the last few weeks, I have learned not to trust anything one side of this debate says, so I looked this up online. Imagine my surprise finding that Paulines left most of that letter out of her post. Let's see why.

"Dear Friends,

There is an important movement afoot concerning the radon in granite.

Here are a few facts.
Most granite has very low and safe levels of radon, a radioactive gas founding nature.
In the past 10 years, with granite becoming very popular here in the U.S., millions of tons of it are now being dumped into the U.S. from all over the globe.
Recently, a few pieces of granite tested were found to have very high levels of radioactivity.
This is a serious concern for consumers, and also for fabricators.

How will this affect your business? It could be very damaging, especially if we, the solid surface industry, take a blind eye. I believe that if we are pro-active, step up to the plate, face this and deal with it head on, it would be a powerful sales tool.

Consider this scenario.

After the facts are released, the solid surface industry steps up to the plate and announces the facts to their customer base.
You could do a mailing to your clients saying something like this. "On very rare occasions, radon levels in granite can be high, and could possibly cause serious health problems. The solid surface community is now testing all granite at purchase and before fabrication to be certain that the products they sell are safe for their clients, their workers and themselves."

This is a powerful sales pitch, having to do with truth and customer safety.
You could offer granite testing (maybe at a discount) by partnering with a tester. You could offer countertop replacements at special pricing even if the counter is not hot.

When granite testing becomes standard, probably not soon enough, [and hopefully before the products enter the U.S. market,] the solid surface industry will have been the first to lead the charge and make an important commitment to the consumer. How great would that be? Why wait for others to do this?

A non-profit organization called Build Clean is working very hard on this, and they need our support. They have been successful at finding some of the hot granites, but their task has just begun.

I have spoken with these people, and they are passionate. They wont be able to tell you everything they told me, but you can believe me that some very important people in our industry are very concerned about these findings of radioactivity. Build Clean is doing us all a great service.

However, it is not an inexpensive task. THEY NEED OUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT.

Visit www.buildclean.org and help to support them. Ive already done so.

Joanna Duggan"

Before this woman gets attacked again, this is the relevant part

"The solid surface community is now testing all granite at purchase and before fabrication to be certain that the products they sell are safe "

It is obvious that she is recomending that these shops contact THEIR own customers that granite was sold to, not other shops customers. It is an offer to replace any granite sold by their shop whether it is hot or not.

I find that admirable that they would lose money to replace a top even if it was safe.

Shame on you Paulines!

No, it says to offer "special pricing" complete with their quotes meaning that it's not really special, just a scare tactic sales tool, and a lobby for funds for a biased non profit.

The whole version is even more damning than just the quote.

rebccah990, you obviously got that quote from the same place I did. That site is as much about fostering knowledge of ss and it's fabrication as I am brittany spears. Have you asked yourself why a ss fabricator would spend 100% of his energies bashing the competition instead of promoting his product(s).....hummmmmmm.

As to Ms. Duggan's circulation, it really speaks for itself (full content or not)- partnering with a tester and offering 'special pricing' for a replacement? Oh pleeeze!

Common girl, you're smarter than that.

The whole version is even more damning than just the quote.

I agree.

Rebcca990-- thank you for that.

"This is a powerful sales pitch, having to do with truth and customer safety."

"having to do with truth" is not the same as telling a FULL and truthful story. This is a marketing effort, and a fund-raising effort for Build Clean (which is also largely a marketing effort). These things happen all over the place.

For example, Rebcca990 says "Imagine my surprise finding that Paulines left most of that letter out of her post." In fact, Paulines originally said "Here's the reprint (in part)". "IN PART". So, Rebcca990 wasn't surprised at all, or shouldn't have been, that Paulines "left most of that letter out of her post". That's what "IN PART" means. Paulines even came back later with a "correction" about the asterisks that she added in the quoted part of the letter.

So, Rebcca990's post is "marketing" a perspective about Pauline's OP. It only "has to do with the truth".

"Have you asked yourself why a ss fabricator would spend 100% of his energies bashing the competition instead of promoting his product(s).....hummmmmmm."

Have you asked yourself why paulines would spend 100% of her energies bashing one man?

You are demonstrably incorrect. The link is to the results of a search for "paulines" in this forum.

Have you asked yourself why paulines would spend 100% of her energies bashing one man?

I'll tell you why a BUNCH of us wasted our time with that moron. He's got a big mouth, and sooner or later, people take notice of people like him, and as I said several times while he was still in here, I was damned if I was going to give him any credibility by my silence. Trust me when I tell you, I had alot better things to do than to sit here and argue with one person on 10 different threads. I'm sure Paulines is no different.

For those that have not been around long... Al has a hatred for all natural stone and if he and his bunch of sore losers have resorted to coming to places like this to spread Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. F.U.D. then you will begin to understand why some people spend so much time following him around.

The guy has been banned from here twice and will probably resurface again.

None of the folks following Al are bashing the materials he likes to work with... his product speaks for itself.

Wow, mikeag just became a member today. What a shock!!!!!

"Have you asked yourself why paulines would spend 100% of her energies bashing one man?"

Hmm. Very suspicious. Paulines' messages did not mention even mention Al or "hotgranitekills" or any of the other numerous pseudonyms this person has gone by, but "mikeag" suddenly pops up TODAY and immediately assumes that paulines is attacking one person in particular. And, seriously, anyone who has hung around this forum long enough knows that paulines does not, by any means, spend all of her time attacking people -- or one person in particular. What a giant steaming pile.

mikeag, you may feel that site I referenced contains useful info for ss fabricators and/or prospective customers, but I don't, not one iota. It's a granite haters of America club over there and frankly, I don't understand the purpose or sense in it as folks that would frequent the site are in the market for ss, NOT stone.

The logic evades me.

To you this site is evidently a 'hit & run'. To many others, particularly those who have posted on this thread, it's a community, where an investment of time and energy is appropriate.

Al has been trolling various sites all over the Internet trying to "win" people over to "his" side - i.e. all natural stone is evil and everybody should have manufactured products on their kitchen counters.

He recently started working with natural stone (and this is by his own confession) because his clients "forced" him to and has stated numerous times that he abhors the material. In stead of educating himself about stone, he decided to start a crusade against it and has come up with all kinds of junk science to prove that stone just should not be suitable for use in a kitchen.

So far he has tried to:
- Trash the material by inferring that it is an inferior product to engineered surfaces
- Convince people natural stone is a breeding ground for bacteria because of an obscure study citing bacteria in stone samples retrieved from very, very, very deep below ground.
- Attempt to link natural stone to terrorism because some of it gets mined in the Middle and Far East
- Show proof that mining practices encourage child labor and therefor stone is evil.
- With the considerable help of Cosentino (the makers of Silestone and Cambria) to drum up a radon scare.

And these are just a few of his shenanigans. He has also time and again proven himself incapable of or unwilling to understand the basic principles of the science and studies he uses to "bolster" his arguments, often citing studies to further his cause that, in effect totally disprove his point to begin with.

Anyway - I thought I would link here to a discussion on a home inspection forum where Al really came up short against a person with tremendous credentials - Caoimhn P. Connell - a forensic industrial hygienist and toxicologist. Mr Connell has the ability to explain very complex scientific principles in a clear and easy to understand fashion and has shed some much needed light on this whole Radon thing.

Al's biggest danger is that he takes a kernel of truth and then wraps it with layers and layers of confounding and lies. It makes it very difficult for anybody who reads his rantings to separate the truth from fabrication and that ends up giving him a credibility he really does not deserve.

I applaud Bill Vincent, PaulineS and REvans1 for their dogged determination in debating Al. You are all better people than I am. Thanks for all you have done to expose how he operates.

I noticed that as soon as he started posting, Al shut right down. I wonder why that is?