it was written:
Fly ash can be used
up to 50 percent as a replacement for Portland Cement. It is usually
pozzolanic and its small diameter particles help with waterproofing as
well as a host of other advantages.
One of the many good reasons for using lime and clay cements on straw houses
is their need to breathe. Hydraulic cement does not breathe well.
Here in the humid southeast we dissuade the use of hydraulic cements on
straw bale. Adding fly ash seems like it would acerbate the breathability
process.
I don't know about
the radioactivity, but I am skeptical that it would amount to much since
it is approved for use in construction.
Somebody sure has their blinders on. The thought that industry would
never do anything that they knew would be harmful is pretty naive to
put it mildly. Not only does fly ash contain heavy metals, depending
on its source it can be full of PAHs, dioxins and furans - the most toxic
chemicals know to humans (and all other life forms).
Fly ash is only
dangerous if not encapsulated.
And if you think encapsulating it is going to protect you, think
again. A group of us here in TN have managed to shut down AAR, American
Ash Recycling. This company claimed to have a process by which the
toxins and heavy metals in fly ash were "bonded" in a mix that they used
in road building and pavements. Although the company claimed that
these materials would not leach out, the facts are when the sites were
tested just a year after application as much as 50% of the toxins HAD leached.
These chemicals are responsible for higher cancer rates, ADHD, immune deficiencies,
reproductive disorders, miscarriages, neurological damage, and all sorts
of developmental disorders. AAR hit us with a SLAP suit. The
judge ruled in our favor and the company went down in TN! And it
is on it's way out in ME and PA, too.
And despite the industries' claims that fly ash increases the strength
of materials there has been evidence to the contrary.
For more safety
and maybe even a better and greener product, check out ground, granulated
blast slag. http://www.virginiadot.org/vtrc/briefs/00-r1rb/Hydraulic_Concrete_Strategies.htm
"greener" than red maybe, but hardly what one would call green.
--
Katey Culver
newtribe@directvinternet.com
www.ecoarchitech.net
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