What’s Wrong with Cement Manufacturing?

Cement is a major component of concrete, but unlike the ready-mix concrete plants that are scattered about the state, there are currently no cement plants in North Carolina. Cement plants are large industrial facilities that burn vast quantities of coal, as well as fuel oil, natural gas–even old tires–to fire giant kilns to temperatures as high as 3,000 degrees F. Some even burn hazardous wastes, making them de facto hazardous waste incinerators, though they are less regulated than municipal waste incinerators. Limestone is a primary raw material, so they are always located near limestone mines. They also use fly-ash as a raw material as well. They all release a variety of dangerous and unhealthy pollutants into the air, nearby water, plants and soil, depending on the fuel they burn and the type of kiln.

For decades, the cement industry, like coal-fired power plants, have been exempt from certain requirements of the federal Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. Such plants, for example, are currently not required to control their mercury emissions. Instead, they are allowed to estimate their emissions, and many historically underreported their pollution–some by a factor of ten.

The bottom line: the cement industry is a heavy industrial polluter and a known emitter of hazardous waste, with insufficient regulations to protect the environment and nearby communities.

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/mercury-cement-47031007

Major Concerns

Mercury - Cement plants are one of the highest industrial emitters of mercury. In 2006 cement kilns pumped nearly 12,000 pounds of unregulated mercury emissions into the air. A recent lawsuit (announced in March 2008) forced the EPA to set limits on mercury emissions from cement plants, but the regulations will not be in force until late 2009. http://www.earthjustice.org/our_work/campaigns/cement-kilns.html

Already, NC ranks among the top ten states with the highest mercury emissions from power plants. http://www.southernenvironment.org/newsroom/2006/04-13_fish_advisory.htm

Mercury is deposited in surface waters and eventually ends up in our food supply. A recent study by the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio showed a statistically significant link between pounds of mercury released by industry and increased autism rates. It also shows, for the first time in scientific literature, an association between autism risk and the distance from the mercury source. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080424120953.htm

Chromium compounds are heavy metals linked to cancer. They include Chromium 6, a chemical that poisoned numerous California families and became the subject of the movie Erin Brockovich. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hex16apr16,0,152814.story

Particulate Matter (PM) is a complex mixture of extremely fine airborne particles. Cement plants create large amounts of the most damaging type of PM. When we inhale these tiny particles they are deposited deep into our lungs, causing respiratory and cardiovascular problems. Particulate matter causes an estimated 30,000 premature adults deaths each year. Children and the elderly are particularly sensitive to PM. http://www.epa.gov/air/urbanair/

Hydrochloric Acid - A recent EPA report estimates that cement kilns emit more than 15,000 tons of hydrochloric acid (HCL) into our air each year. HCL is irritating and corrosive to any tissue it contacts and causes health problems ranging from throat irritation to swelling and spasm of the throat and lung tissues, leading to suffocation and even death.
http://lungaction.org/lungusa/alert-description.tcl?alert_id=3495475

Ozone is a toxic gas found naturally in the upper atmosphere. However, cement kilns produce another type of ozone by emitting nitrogen dioxide and hydrocarbon vapors. When these are combined with heat from sunlight, they form a dangerous form of ground level ozone, also known as smog. Smog is the hazy brownish drift you see over crowded cities like Los Angeles and Houston. The health hazards of smog are well documented. http://www.epa.gov/air/urbanair/

Carbon dioxide is the primary human-generated greenhouse gas that is driving global climate change. Cement plants are responsible for five percent of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. In a study conducted last year by Yale, Johns Hopkins, and Columbia Universities, among others, Wilmington was cited as one of ten mid-sized southeastern cities projected to have increasingly poorer air quality from rising temperatures associated with climate change alone The study did not include the addition of a large cement kiln in New Hanover County that would be a major contributor to smog and particulate matter. http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/heatadvisory/contents.asp

Cement Kiln Dust (CKD) is a residual solid waste generated in the cement manufacturing process. It is not the gaseous emission that goes out the top of the kilns, but an entirely different form of toxic waste that resembles fine, grayish-white powder. The main components of CKD are alumina, silica, clay, and metallic oxides, but they may also contain trace amounts of dioxins and furans, cadmium, lead, selenium and radionuclides. Cancer risks have been associated with arsenic in CKD as well as certain dioxins. Contaminants in kiln dust can pose threats to human health through air particulates and polluted groundwater. In April 2008, air quality officials in Riverside, California, discovered that CKD stored at a TXI Cement plant had carried cancer-causing hexavalent chromium into nearby neighborhoods. http://www.envirotools.org/factsheets/community/update4.shtml

Dioxins are emitted when tires are burned in cement kilns. Dioxins are among the worst known human carcinogens (cancer causing agents), and also affect the immune system, fertility, and children in the womb. Titan is considering burning tires in its kiln. http://www.ichetucknee.org/health.html