Geiger Counter App Downloaded 2 Million Times After Users Realize Their Phones Were the Radiation Source

A free Geiger counter application called RadCheck, which topped the App Store charts last week with over 2 million downloads, has been pulled after users discovered that the elevated radiation readings it detected were being emitted by their own smartphones. 'The app uses the phone's camera sensor to detect ionizing radiation, which is a legitimate technique,' explained developer Marcia Isotope. 'What I failed to account for is that modern smartphones contain trace amounts of thorium in their ceramic capacitors, which the camera sensor then detects. So yes, the app works. It just keeps finding the phone.' The discovery set off a wave of panic as users across the country pointed their phones at themselves and received readings of 0.15 to 0.22 microsieverts per hour — slightly above natural background levels and well within safe limits, but alarming to people who do not know what a microsievert is. 'My phone said I was radioactive,' said user Jason Becquerel of Tampa, who evacuated his apartment and spent the night in his car. 'Then I realized the phone was radioactive. Then I was holding the radioactive phone. It was a whole situation.' The Health Physics Society issued a statement clarifying that the radiation levels detected by RadCheck are 'comparable to eating a banana' and pose no health risk. This comparison, intended to be reassuring, instead prompted a secondary panic about bananas. 'We specifically chose the banana comparison because bananas contain potassium-40 and it's a well-known radiation reference,' said Health Physics Society president Dr. Gloria Rem. 'We did not anticipate that 40,000 people would throw out their bananas.' Isotope has released an updated version of the app that excludes the phone's own emissions. It now reads zero everywhere, which users have found 'suspicious.'