The Pharos Project is a project of the Healthy Building Network. HBN is:

In Vermont:
Melissa Coffin, Bill Walsh

In California:
Tom Lent

In Washington, DC:
Larry Kilroy, Sarah Gilberg, Sarah Pickell, Susan Sabella

In Maine:
Jim Vallette

PEER HITS COAL WASTE IN BUILDING PRODUCTS

 

If you have been working to eliminate mercury exposure and contamination, it is well worth reading the comments filed yesterday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (http://www.peer.org) objecting to EPA's proposal to promote the beneficial use of coal ash wastes in a wide array of products from cement to cosmetics. 

As a PEER website catalogues, "coal ash is everywhere." In the built environment, coal ash is present in a wide array of  materials, from carpet backing to acoustical ceiling tiles.

The concern is that the ubiquitous use of  60 million tons of coal ash annually as "recycled content"  violates the precautionary principle because the environmental and health consequences of the mercury content of the ash being mixed into so many products are unknown and largely have not been investigated.  Not incidentally, PEER argues that by promoting the beneficial use of coal ash wastes the federal government is also undermining efforts to reduce the amount of coal burned for energy in the US.  The comments cite (beginning at p.12) research by Jim Vallette from our Pharos Project documenting mercury emissions from factories manufacturing gypsum wallboard, a.k.a. "sheetrock," using ash wastes generated by the stack desulfurization process at coal burning power plants.   

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Earthbeat Radio is broadcasting an encore edition of a talk with Pharos senior researcher Jim Vallette.  "As the 5th anniversary of Hurrance Katrina and Hurricane Rita approaches, Jim explains how imported toxic drywall poses health risks for Gulf Coast survivors as they attempt to rebuild their homes and lives."

Bill Walsh is the executive director of the Healthy Building Network.

Comments

There are 3 comments.

  
Nadav; it seems the Coal Combustion Residues (CCRs) are much more widely used than what I thought too. In fact PEER web site provides an extensive range of information in this regard. For example, in a paper accessible through the link: "Raw feed for cement clinker (in kiln)" under "Construction & Building Materials" section of PEER web site, the following uses are among those listed for CCR: • Fly ash, bottom ash, and boiler slag can be added to the raw material feed in clinker manufacturing to contribute specific required constituents, such as silica, alumina, and calcium, in the final cement composition. • Fly ash with high unburned carbon content can also be reburned in cement kilns for energy recovery at the same time as it provides ingredient value. I think this may answer your question about the role of CCRs in cement manufacturing.

  
Nadav, yes, you may be right that the press release might be conflating cement with concrete. I think the lines are more clearly drawn and connected in the actual comments from PEER to EPA.

  
They've put together a lot of interesting material, but, unless I'm missing something, the biggest point in their press announcement totally confuses the issue. They say: "Cement manufacture is the single biggest reuse but studies show that the high temperatures in cement kilns release all of the mercury in the coal combustion waste to the atmosphere." The problem with this statement is that it is NOT cement manufacture, but concrete mixes, that are the biggest reuse. All that coal fly ash doesn't go into the cement kilns (where the mercury would be vaporized) but instead into concrete. Am I missing something, or are they?

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