Do I really need my countertop to kill germs?

I DON'T get it. Not to be anti-American, but why do I need a countertop that claims to kill germs?

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The counter in question is called The Silestone (with built-in Microban antimicrobial product protection). It's manufactured by Texas-based Cosentino USA and due to hit the market this summer. The company combines mined quartz crystals with polymers and a secret blend of microbe-fighting chemicals produced by Microban International, which licenses its technology to over 140 manufacturers of everything from bathroom grout to air filters to garden hoses.

Microban and Cosentino are quick to admit that they do not claim their products protect humans from food-born illness, pathogens, E. coli, or sexually transmitted disease. They state upfront that Microban merely protects the products themselves from the bad odors, stains, and deterioration that bacteria may cause. The EPA requires that they do that.

Now antimicrobial tub grout I can understand and would recommend to every cut-rate motel I've ever showered in. And maybe I need antimicrobial technology inside my garden hose, not to protect my tomato plants from bacteria (they happen to live in a complex cuvee of bacteria commonly called "soil"), but because some microbe growing unregulated inside my garden hose might actually cause it to decay more quickly. Although I doubt it.

But antimicrobial potions in a countertop mostly made of nonporous quartz cause me confusion. Cosentino states that Microban protection provides a "proven deterrent to the growth of bacteria that can cause stains, odors, and product deterioration." Yet when I asked a woman at Cosentino whether their Silestone quartz countertops without Microban protection have suffered from stains, odors, or product deterioration, she said no. Why, then, should I want it? To keep your counters extra clean, she said, and referred me to the people at Microban.

Apparently my problem was me. A man from Microban said that the antimicrobial market is currently worth more than $10 billion worldwide and growing fast. He said a 2004 Gallup poll revealed that 75 percent of Americans used at least 11 antimicrobial products daily. But why, I asked, would they want to own an antimicrobial countertop that doesn't actually have any effect on human health and doesn't actually suffer from the odors and stains that the Microban inside is supposed to prevent? He said, "For that extra level of protection."

I tried to blame my extra-protection confusion on Mom. When food fell onto the mirror-like floor at my friend Davie's house, his mother would screech, "Don't touch that! It has germs!" Then she'd go wash the driveway with bleach. Whereas my mom was more apt to respond with equanimity. "You've gotta eat a peck of dirt," she'd say, then return to her mystery novel.

When I called an infectious disease expert, however, I discovered that Mom was right. While floors and counters do in fact have germs, so does food, and get this -- so do we! Our saliva alone contains 10 to the 12th power of bacteria, and let's not even talk about the colon. Bacteria is essential to digestion, he said, to the formation of soil, to life.

He said it's perfectly safe to exist without extra antimicrobial protection, and maybe even to eat a peck of dirt. Although I am curious where Mom came up with that exact measurement. Wouldn't a gill of dirt work just as well?

Nathaniel Reade is a freelance writer.