No price fixing or strong arming huh? All this is from the SFA site. I believe it will dispel any claims that there is not a serious issue, so you can drop the alarmist business. It also shows that some of your members do not want you to admit that some granites are "hot as hell"

You just wrote this:

"There has never been any price fixing as everyone knows, this would be in direct violation of US Anti-Trust laws!"
And this is one of many, many, comments proving that the Dark Room is used for price fixing.

"Another cool development is a forum we call the "Dark Room" It is only visible to SFA members. We can talk amongst each other in private. We can talk about pay, pricing, machine makers or whatever. This a room that is only seen by other fabricators. This is powerful stuff!"

Now, you just wrote: No machine company has been strong armed by our organization, otherwise they wouldn't be sponsors! Here is one comment of one thread of many that disprove what you just wrote.

"One of our fellow fabricators was having issues getting good support from a machine co.company. Our members emailed and called the company. (20 or 30 of us) and were able to exert some pressure to get our members machine up and running. Talk about a brotherhood."

"The statements are political documents. Don\'t read into them. It is the end result that matters. Build Clean is going to go away (we are pretty sure)."

Looks like to me you were applying undue influence on a nonprofit. Look up the laws on that will ya?

"Ron and Mark,Is the Build Clean site going black and when. Is that at the sole discretion of Cosentino or does everyone have to agree to it?"

"We will prepare for phase 2 of this operation. Target Cambria. They do not understand or believe that we will wreak havoc. "

Blackmail, extortion!

"Now that we have the Cosentino part of the question put to bed it is time to focus on the other half. We can direct our energy on the next objective. Divide and conquer!"

"So did you get COSENTINO to cut a SPONSOR check yet"

Ah, it is a money shakedown as well?

" Dan Dauchess wrote:We need to come up with a reasonable and scientifically defensible testing protocol that does not make us look like a bunch of idiots like Al the Crapenturd."

Oh, Kent, care to explain why it is okay to name call and then expect me to help? We both know this is one of many insults and threats against me.

"Trust me on this one detail...if your customer found a spot has hot as the one I came across, you could wind up in a courtroom having your ass handed to you on a platter. I have a huge investment in my shop.....i want to protect my self.This radiation shite is no joke.....we have implicit liability."

Geez, and this is from SFA leaders? Sounds like "Alarmist activities"? Or the friggin truth.

"Some people believe the earth is flat...that does not make it so.I watched the meter go right off the charts, we reviewed alot of data....how would you like some radon home inspector to find that crap? And then your customer sues you into the stone age....you wind up paying not only for the tear out, replacement.....you get a judgment against you for millions of dollars for the exposure of her life dose of radiation. You lose your shop....your house....and then have the joy of filing banktruptcy. THIS IS REAL! IT WILL HAPPEN! We can claim ignorance for our past.....we can not do so going forward.I don\'t think you telling the judge \"I still think granite is safe\" is going to fly. "

Uh oh, more "Alarmist activity" from the SFA leaders....

"We went into the board room swinging a bat and did so to the very end. It was a 5 hour nut crushing meeting, these men are very very smart and very tough negociators. I am almost 100% certain they did meet with the MIA, and I am almost 100% certain they signed such docs....which is why we never heard about the failure. I do not \"know\" this to be TRUE....but I feel it in my bones. (you can almost never prove these types of things)"

Yup, the MIA did meet with them, several times. The MIA were exposed to the same data you saw. And it was no "failure", it was the MIA refusal to admit the facts like the SFA did. That very after noon they launched the Defense of Granite Fund to pay the lawyers and settlements that will be needed. Yet they contiue to claim that all stone is safe??? Hmmm, swinging a bat?

"Dude....we dont\' lose our nukes.....we just took our finger off the trigger. We can torch it off if they don\'t play team ball. That is the power we wield. They perceive it is real and act accordingly.Ron and I discussed this....we decided to post this here first (dark room) before we post in the public. We do not want to appear fractured and un-united in the public. It will turn our nukes in to fire crackers.

I guess your Bang went Fizzzz. Your extortion attempt seems to have failed.

"Mark and Ron - Please do not post in a public forum that certain granites may not be safe and needs to be tested. This would be disasterous. We cannot claim ignorance for the past. One lawsuit from an ambulance chaser would cost thousands to defend. The EPA states that their is not any significant risk. Keep that line until more data is revealed."

Uh oh, this guy doesn't want you to admit the truth, says it would be "disaterous". Hide the facts till we are forced to admit it!!!!!

"Think about this...The issue is in the press....the radon & radiation inspection crowd is out there testing this stuff.....the American Bar Association is gearing up for law suits and issuing briefs on how to do this.As this moves forward (think about the mold thing a few years back) It is going to keep coming up in the news...To say all granites are fine is simply not the truth. The press will eat our lunch if we continue to deny this. Can you imagine the headlines when some reporter flys to Africa films a uranium mine and then walks a few hundred yards over to a stone quarry?"

And the SSA has been telling you this for months now, that some of the quarries were a few hundred yards from Uranium mines. Hello!!!!!!!!

"I know for a fact I do not want granite that is loaded with uranium in MY house. I do not want to install it in others houses....and I sure as hell do not want to NOT know.Not all of that stuff coming out of that quarry is super hot....some of it IS."

"we know that some of these African granites are possibly a disaster. We need to have a way to check for this to protect ourselves. Saying that all stone is safe will fuel the fire more.....we (like the MIA) will lose credibility in our customers eyes. The challenge will be how do we do this....without turning it into a debacle. We must say this....or we are liars. Deliberate omission of fact is the exact thing as a lie. It is what Build Clean and the MIA are doing. "

The point the SFA leadership is missing is that they have already been proven to be liars and have spent a lot of effort to suppress any discussion on the subject for a couple of years running, even blackmailing and extorting companies that supported the testing and warning consumers of this problem. The ONLY thing that will save them is for the leaders to step down and the new leaders to accept that improper activities did occur and that steps are being taken to prevent more strong arming, extortion, and suppresion of the facts.

"Boyd,I think we are going to have a \"party\" with cambria. Too bad they are an American company.Get out the pitch forks. "


"Sam,We hold the cards.....our ability to deploy the threat still exists.I believe they will play team ball".


Now, I don't need to find a "link between granite and cancer". You guys admit that some granite needs "boxed up and buried" and that some is "Hot as hell". A news flash, Sherlock, Silestone sent me five samples last week that they said were "the hottest they ever found". I guess they were like a falling soldier throwing a weapon to his buddies so it didn't get used against them. Anyway, I have Silestones data sheet off the samples right here, 274,304, 500, 604, and 1242 cpm (counts per minute). I responded back that these weren't that hot compared to what we were finding, up to 7,000 cpm, but they insisted they were high Radon emitters, so off the the researchers they went. The point is that it is a proven fact there there are high levels of radiation found in granite. It is also a fact that radiation causes cancer. The law of the land is ALARA, with industry spending vast sums to keep the exposures low because of the health risks. End of story.

And Hernando wasn't the Silestone Exectutive, I was quite specific it was Roberto. Get your story straight.
93% quartz by weight, between 28 and 35% by volume, again get it right. And do I need to show some of the comments you guys make on regular basis? Like Stink and gravel?

Losing members? You know that that thread I took the comnets off of also was about SFA members dropping the MIA membership over this. Add the SFA members that can not afford to have the truth come out, read Mark's comments above, how many of them will stick around.

As to the SFA, I am not at all "pissed" at them. I fully expect them to realize that without me and my allies, they will have zero crediblity in addressing this issue, and our cooperation requires them to come clean in public. I have always thought that the SFA was doing some work to clean up the stone industry, like Mausizio (sp?) the guy that recently passed away, he too was trying hard to clean up some of the B.S. going on. Don't confuse being "pissed" with driving you guys into a position where you have no choice but to come clean, which is exactly what I have done. All that is left is for you to admit it and start cooperating, but then again, you are already doing some of what I wanted.

Now, you know that I wasn't banned for "name calling and abusive behaviour". I was banned for asking the MIA guy to start cooperating. You guys banned Joe Corelett for saying exactly what Mark and Ron are saying not, Joe's crime was pointing out the obvious and all know it. David's crime was the same, pointing out that you guys had your head in a dark place.

And please explain why they changed one of my last posts, adding comments in some childish attempt to get a laugh? That is something a "brotherhood" would do, falsifying someone's public comments then banning them so it couldn't be corrected? Talk about crooked!!

Now, go back and scrub your site if you wish, it is all copied already and in a safe place. The fact that the stuff disappears will prove the intent. Destroying evidence is not a good thing for a trade association to be part of, nor will those who wrote the threads be exempt from penalties from the destruction of evidence.

Kent, I appreciate the email you sent yesterday, but it was 180 degrees from what you are posting here. Forget the public stance and politics, act the same in private as in public, being two faced will not win much trust. If needed, I will post your email here to prove the fact. If you have to act this way, it tells me I will be wasting my time as you don't have the respect of your fellow members if you have to behave this way to be accepted. Follow Mark and Ron's example, stick your neck out or leave it to those with courage.

And Build clean is not on the rocks, nor did they leak anything to the NY Times. News flash Kent, Kate Murphy told me she interviewed the MIA first, Dr. Llope second, then me. I gave Kate Liebert, Chiodo,Kitto, the Houston Geologists, and the rest of the background for the story. The story was supposed to be about a fight between Build Clean and the MIA, instead the reporter shocked her editors with a real story about the dangers of some granites.

As to Cambria, if they switch sides, I will buy you dinner at the next Surfaces show in Orlando.

And Kent, after you knowing what your own SFA leaders have said about the existence of hot granite slabs, attempting to claim that our samples were somehow tainted is pretty ridiculous.

Kent, thanks for reaching out, but you have showed an astonishing lack of integrity in your last post. I suggest you find another to represent the outreach to our side, unless you do some quick apologizing and set the record straight. One thing our founding fathers knew was that character counts, few can lead without it.