Cement Spawns CO2

Worldwide production of cement accounts for almost 7% of the total world CO2 production" based on the following figures: 1995 cement production at 1.4 billion tons, CO2 emissions at 1 ton per ton of cement; and 1995 global CO2 emissions at 21.6 billion tons.

Southdown Fairborn ships 730,000 tons annually

CO2 is the leading cause of greenhouse gases and has been directly linked to the greenhouse effect and is a hazardous and sometimes deadly gas to humans.
CO2: Where From?

Quantity of CO2 Emissions:

• Total631 lbs/CY (Cubic Yard)
• From Energy:381 lbs/CY
• From Limestone: 250 lbs/CY

The Long Beach, Ca Aquarium

• Made with 24,000 CY of concrete, which is around 15,000,000 pounds of CO2, or around 15,000,000 vehicle miles.
• The Long Beach Aquarium is equal to about 625 trips around the world or 31 round trips to the moon.

Other Chemicals

Air pollutants commonly emitted from cement manufacturing plants include:
• sulfur dioxide (SO2) and
• nitrous oxides (NOx).
• SO2 emissions (and to a lesser extent SO3, sulfuric acid, and hydrogen sulfide) result from sulfur content of both the raw materials and the fuel.

Washout Water

"Wash-out water with high pH is the number one environmental issue for the ready mix concrete industry," Environment Canada estimates water use at batching plants at about 500 gallons per truck per day, and the alkalinity levels of wash water can be as high as pH 12. Highly alkaline water is toxic to fish and other aquatic life.

The Cost of Improved Products

A number of chemicals are now commonly added to concrete to control setting time, plasticity, pumpability, water content, freeze-thaw resistance, strength, and color.
Workability agents or superplasticizers can include such chemicals as sulfonated melamine-formaldehyde and sulphon-ated napthalene formaldehyde condensates.

More Chemicals?

Air-entraining admixtures are usually added to the cement and identified with the letter A after the type (Type IA). These materials can include various types of inorganic salts (salts of wood resins and salts of sulphonated lignin, for example), along with more questionable chemicals such as alkyl benzene sulphonates and methyl-ester-derived cocamide diethanolamine.
Fungicides, germicides, and insecticides are also added to some concrete.

(RCS) Respirable Crystalline Silica

• Human carcinogen
• Based on studies in humans
• The link between lung cancer and exposure to RCS is strongest in studies of quarry and granite workers
• Residents near quaries and sand and gravel operations are potentially exposed to [RCS]. (National Toxicology Program Report on Carcinogens, 9th edition, May 2000)

What Else Has Been Reported by Southdown?

• Ethelyne Glycol-Fairborn
• Lead- Fairborn
• Other Southdown Sites
  • Antimony
  • Barium Vinyl Acetate
  • Chromium
  • Xylene
  • Tolulene
  • Phenol
  • Styrene
  • Ethylbenzene
  • Hydrochloric acid
  • N-Butyl alchohol

The Industry as a Polluter

• Part of Stone, Clay and Glass Producers
• Within this sector, cement production ranks 1st as a pollutant
• The industry is third highest polluter behind only Primary metals and Textiles
• Fugitive air releases in 1999 were approx. 31,244 lbs of contaminants nationwide