Corporate Greed

Environmental Risks Not Immediately Apparent

Manufacturers often rush to launch new products, hoping to gain a competitive edge. Yet the environmental risks of a new material or technology are not always apparent until the product has been on sale for a period. This is a problem even in industries such as pharmaceuticals in which products must undergo extensive testing and regulatory review for both effectiveness and safety.

It is an even bigger risk in the construction products industry. New building products may require testing to demonstrate certain aspects of safety -- such as fire resistance -- in order to comply with building codes. Yet there are not industry-wide  protocols for testing the environmental impact of a product, nor regulations mandating prior approval before marketing.

A case in point is nano-sized particles of titanium dioxide. The material has impressive potential for reducing airborne pollutants and making concrete self-cleaning. A marketing director promoting the product once assured me the compound is inert, and saw no reason to delay the product's introduction until it could be tested for impact on ecosystems. When he boosted that he could eat a spoonful without ill effects, I responded, "Yes, but you are not a coral polyp."

Now, new research suggests my concern was not unwarranted:

According to a new Northeastern University study, titanium dioxide nanoparticles (nTiO2) can disrupt photosynthetic organisms vital to aquatic ecosystems. Long used in paints, coatings, cement, and tile to create bright white coloring, titanium dioxide is now used in nanoparticle form in cosmetics, sunscreens, food coloring, and even building products, particularly white concrete products that are claimed to clean the air.

April Gu, Carla Cherchi, and other environmental engineers studied how nTiO2 affects one blue-green algae organism that contributes to aquatic nitrogen and carbon cycles. The researchers found that algae growth was reduced by 90 percent and nitrogen fixation activity was diminished when the organisms were exposed to nTiO2 at levels similar to those found in wastewater. Effects increased with exposure time and nTiO2 concentrations. The laboratory study did not evaluate the effect of titanium nanoparticles in the environment, or whether such particles are released from common products. For more information visit www1.coe.neu.edu.
Elsewhere, I have suggested prudent measures that can be taken to use TiO2 in building products, even while further environmental safety research is being conducted. The point of this post is to urge all members of the construction industry to proceed with caution when investigating new materials that have not been rigorously tested for environmental safety.

Cement Emissions and Social Justice

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing final rules that will protect Americans' health by cutting emissions of mercury, particle pollution and other harmful pollutants from Portland cement manufacturing, the third-largest source of mercury air emissions in the United States. The rules are expected to yield $7 to $19 in public health benefits for every dollar in costs. Mercury can damage children's developing brains, and particle pollution is linked to a wide variety of serious health effects, including aggravated asthma, irregular heartbeat, heart attacks, and premature death in people with heart and lung disease.
I have a personal connection to this news item:

A friend of mine did her Ph.D. dissertation monitoring emissions from cement plants to document their pollution. Plant operators were not cooperative with her research. They would ban her from access to their sites and, if they discovered her setting up monitoring stations downwind, would temporarily modify production to artificially reduce emissions.

Understanding and reducing pollution was only one aspect of her research. Social justice was another. Cement plants, she explained, are usually located in "economically disadvantaged" neighborhoods that lacked the resources to oppose the pollution. The children with the least access to medical care, she observed, were the ones bearing the brunt of the toxic emissions from cement plants.

Social justice is fundamental to sustainable construction.  The Hannover Principles, a set of succinct guideposts to sustainable construction puts "human rights" at the top of its list of criteria for green construction.

I am sure the EPA's new guidelines do not satisfy my friend. Still, I salute her work for helping make the EPA's efforts possible.

---------------------
Her research is published in the following (emphasis added):

"Wet deposition of mercury within the vicinity of a cement plant before and during cement plant maintenance, Atmospheric Environment (March 2010)

Abstract: Hg species (total mercury, methylmercury, reactive mercury) in precipitation were investigated in the vicinity of the Lehigh Hanson Permanente Cement Plant in the San Francisco Bay Area, CA., USA. Precipitation was collected weekly between November 29, 2007 and March 20, 2008, which included the period in February and March 2008 when cement production was minimized during annual plant maintenance. When the cement plant was operational, the volume weighted mean (VWM) and wet depositional flux for total Hg (HgT) were 6.7 and 5.8 times higher, respectively, compared to a control site located 3.5 km east of the cement plant. In February and March, when cement plant operations were minimized, levels were approximately equal at both sites (the ratio for both parameters was 1.1). Due to the close proximity between the two sites, meteorological conditions (e.g., precipitation levels, wind direction) were similar, and therefore higher VWM HgT levels and HgT deposition likely reflected increased Hg emissions from the cement plant. Methylmercury (MeHg) and reactive Hg (Hg(II)) were also measured; compared to the control site, the VWM for MeHg was lower at the cement plant (the ratio ¼ 0.75) and the VWM for Hg(II) was slightly higher (ratio ¼ 1.2), which indicated the cement plant was not likely a significant source of these Hg species to the watershed.


"Evidence for short-range transport of atmospheric mercury to a rural, inland site," Atmospheric Environment (March 2010)

Abstract: Atmospheric mercury (Hg) species, including gaseous elemental mercury (GEM), reactive gaseous mercury (RGM) and particulate-bound mercury (Hgp), were monitored near three sites, including a cement plant (monitored in 2007 and 2008), an urban site and a rural site (both monitored in 2005 and 2008). Although the cement plant was a significant source of Hg emissions (for 2008, GEM: 2.20 =/- 1.39 ng m-3, RGM: 25.2 =/- 52.8 pg m-3, Hgp 80.8 =/- 283 pg m-3), average GEM levels and daytime average dry depositional RGM flux were highest at the rural site, when all three sites were monitored sequentially in 2008 (rural site, GEM: 2.37 =/- 1.26 ng m-3, daytime RGM flux: 29 =/- 40 ng m-2 day-1). Photochemical conversion of GEM was not the primary RGM source, as highest net RGM gains (75.9 pg m-3, 99.0 pg m-3, 149 m-3) occurred within 3.0-5.3 h, while the theoretical time required was 14e23 h. Instead, simultaneous peaks in RGM, Hgp, ozone (O3), nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide in the late afternoon suggested short-range transport of RGM from the urban center to the rural site. The rural site was located more inland, where the average water vapor mixing ratio was lower compared to the other two sites (in 2008, rural: 5.6 =/- 1.4 g kg-1, urban: 9.0 =/- 1.1 g kg-1, cement plant: 8.3 =/- 2.2 g kg-1). Together, these findings suggested short-range transport of O3 from an urban area contributed to higher RGM deposition at the rural site, while drier conditions helped sustain elevated RGM levels. Results suggested less urbanized environments may be equally or perhaps more impacted by industrial atmospheric Hg emissions, compared to the urban areas from where Hg emissions originated.

How AT&T's limits on data use will impact A/E/C users

AT&T announced yesterday they are eliminating unlimited data plans, capping the "premium" plan at 2GB per month, with fees for additional gigabytes. Reports suggest Verison has a similar plan in the works. Some commentators are getting a bit melodramatic about this step, but there will be potentially serious impacts on the way we use mobile data, especially in an industry like construction where files tend to be large and graphic intensive.

In an interview Mike Collins, AT&T's senior VP of data and voice products, mobility and consumer products, explained the rationale behind this move. Sadly, despite all his nostalgic discussion of "The early days of wireless" and pro-tech, futuristic visions of "innovation", the company's motivations come down to this:
Overall this is a way to reallocate demand based on products and services that customers are willing to consume and pay for. It goes back to the phrase, what is something worth? It’s worth what someone is willing to pay you for it.
At a time when high data-use app development is soaring, smartphone adoption is increasing, and the best predictions suggest cell phones will become the primary mode of internet access globally within the next decade, AT&T redesigned their data plans based on last year's data usage.

Ok, maybe I'm a little upset. 

But what will this mean for the construction industry?

First of all, it will mean streamlined website development. Contractors in the field looking for product information won't want to pay for a big, fancy site to load. Additionally, successful manufacturers will offer mobile-optimized sites. Any large photos or documents will need two versions, normal and low-resolution, with the low-res version set as default. Hopefully your company is already doing this.

Secondly, it could chill the growing movement towards mobile CAD and BIM programs. Just yesterday I was listening to a podcast extolling the virtues of AutoCAD's iPad program. These will still be useful for working on local projects, but the cloud-based aspect of BIM could face limitations.

Basically, this will be a problem in the field -- which is usually where we need our smartphone data connections. WiFi connections will still provide unlimited usage, so using smartphones at your office, home, or Starbucks will be unaffected. But a lot of our work happens outside these locations, such as in clients' offices.

Will they be willing to share their wireless network so you can stream your presentation? Maybe; this might be the move that makes wireless data as much a public resource as the water fountain, restrooms, and coffee pot. That brings up a slew of privacy and liability issues, though. Maybe the government will finally get around to making WiFi a free public utility, but I wouldn't count on it.

Ironically, this may drive adoption of the WiFi-only iPad; or, as I call it, the affordable model. Originally I felt WiFi-only was too limiting on how I would use the iPad, but if data pricing continues along this trend then I have enough of an incentive to rely more on locally-stored files and WiFi hotspots.

How will this impact your smartphone adoption? Does it discourage iPad or social media campaigns?