Under the new bill, Florida could have roads made of phosphogypsum, a material known by the EPA to contain a “potentially cancer-causing, radioactive gas,” that’s the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S.
Under the new bill, Florida could have roads made of phosphogypsum, a material known by the EPA to contain a “potentially cancer-causing, radioactive gas,” that’s the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S.
As with most CNN articles the data presented is very light. Everything is radioactive, but we don’t know where this material falls. Around me (Virginia) our soil produces Radon, and we vent it, unmodified, to the atmosphere. Of course we do this because if we let it seep into and accumulate in buildings it’s a hazard, but if we vent it out of it houses it becomes part of the natural expulsion from the soil.
I worry about the reporting here specifically because coal ash is in the list of recycled materials, which sounds bad. Except I presume at least part of this is fly ash which, it turns out, is a pozzolonic material which can be used to stabilize and reduce the necessary quantity of cement in concrete. That’s good because concrete makes great road surfaces in non-freezing climates (ie Florida) and cement manufacturing is a huge contributor to global warming.
Randomly approving the use of a questionable material is bad but, until we see some actual data, the jury is out on this one.