Houston — BuildClean, the Houston-based organization testing homes for radon and radiation emissions from granite, has yet to complete its testing or arrive at definitive conclusions, the not-for-profit organization informed Kitchen & Bath Design News last month.

Reacting to a news story in KBDN about its ongoing radon testing in 300 Houston-area homes, BuildClean president Sara Speer Selber said that testing is continuing and that BuildClean expects to have results from both its in-home study and the laboratory testing available to the public in six months to a year.

The Marble Institute of America, the trade association representing granite and other natural stone suppliers, recently issued “an alert,” calling attention to what the MIA said were “spurious allegations” stemming from BuildClean test results linking granite countertops to the threat of cancer and resulting in “groundless panic.”

The Cleveland, OH-based MIA also questioned the objectivity of the testing, underwritten by manufacturers of competing synthetic countertop materials, and recently created a special fund to address costs incurred in defending the safety of natural stone.

Selber, however, defended the validity of BuildClean’s testing procedures and said that, while the in-home study has yet to be completed, the organization has chronicled a number of homes with indoor granite countertops emitting radon above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency action guideline for mitigation, as well as radiation from slabs above the EPA-recommended levels.