Liquid Calcium Chloride Brine - The Green Choice

    

Liquid Calcium Chloride Brine - The Green Choice
When used as recommended, Liquid Calcium Chloride Brine is a safe, environmentally sound solution for ice and snow removal and prevention; road stabilization and dust control.

The safety and environmental-friendliness of Liquid Calcium Chloride Brine has been studied and documented, as illustrated by the information below.

Calcium chloride is less harmful to vegetation than rock salt.(1,2)

According to a study by the Strategic Highway Research Program, experiments at nine state highway agencies, anti-icing treatment requires less chemical use than most deicing procedures and makes it easier to achieve bare pavement conditions.As a result, anti-icing can provide cost savings as well as environmental benefits. For example, the Iowa, Missouri, Oregon, and Washington DOTs realized cost savings and the following benefits in test programs:

• Fewer snowplow trips were made.
• The anti-icing truck only had to make one trip for every three trips made by the larger conventional snow-removal truck.
• Crews experienced less wear on equipment due to fewer snowplow runs.
• When required, plowing was easier and faster.
• Less time was spent clearing roads.
• Fewer chemicals were needed by applying the treatment prior to snowfall. With fewer chemical applications needed, the anti-icing method was better for the environment. (3)

Calcium (Ca) and chloride (Cl) ions both naturally occur in the environment and calcium chloride easily dissociates into Ca and Cl ions in water. These ions are essential micronutrients for both plants and animals, so exposure to calcium chloride in the environment is considered to have low potential hazard.(4)

Calcium chloride is considered to be practically non-toxic to aquatic organisms.(5)

Sources:

1. Columbia University, http://www.environment.columbia.edu/news/deicing/index.html.

2 . University of Michigan Occupational Safety and Environmental Health.

3. Blackburn, R.R., McGrane, E.J., Chappelow, C.C., and Harwood, D.W., "Development of Anti-Icing Technology." Strategic Highway Research Program, SHRP-H-385, National Research Council, Washington, DC, (1994) http://www.trb.org/publications/shrp/SHRP-H-385.pdf.

4. Calcium Chloride SIDS Initial Assessment Profile, UNEP Publications, SIAM 15, Boston, October 22-25, 2002, pages 1, 2 and 4.

5.Calcium Chloride Safety Data Sheet, No. 005488, October 20, 2003, page 6.