An approach to road dust control must consider the type of road along with the land where it's located. The answer for the paved road within a desert will likely be very different than a unpaved road in the rural upper Midwest. Since nuisance dust has many sources in the environment, a lasting resolution is absolutely not feasible. But you will find long term solutions and extremely short term options to road dust. The shortest term solution may be the spraying of water on the road surface. It's an environment-friendly solution, but only lasts until the water evaporates. Oils are a longer term solution, but are not nearly as environmentally friendly as water is. In some cases, like with Times Beach in Missouri, the oils are from a excess resource and contain poisons. The oil which was used for the road dust control product for Times Beach was only six cents a gallon, but contained dioxin and added toxic chemicals. This was a cost-effective solution for the town and its dust problem, but a health and environmental nightmare. This has result in a ban by many nations for the use of waste oils as being a road dust control product. Today, more thought is put into what covers the roads in any attempt to control road dust. Furthermore this is the main reason so much research and development continues to be funded to research environmentally friendly and cheap measures to scale back the total amount of road dust that has been contaminating the areas around our roads and also the air we breathe. This includes many different vegetable oils, non-bituminous compounds, electro-chemical stabilizers, polymers, enzyme slurries, and the usage of chloride salts. The chloride salts are the most widely employed since they really are the least expensive of all the road dust control solutions. There are actually 4 distinctive ones in use nowadays which includes calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, potassium chloride, and sodium chloride. Many people are aware the result that two of those, sodium and potassium chlorides, have on their automobiles as a consequence of their use inside the winter months to prevent ice buildup on the roads. The usage of calcium chloride for road dust control has occurred for many years. It may be observed that not only had the nuisance dust been loward however the roads themselves have stayed intact for a longer time. It controls the dust by retaining moisture longer over the surface than other materials. This moisture level makes the dust particles too heavy to become airborne. Not as cost effective, but longer lasting plus much more environmentally friendly, is a magnesium chloride solution. This hydroscopic chemical works in the identical way that calcium chloride does, but with less damage to vehicles and the surrounding vegetation. Lately, there are several companies developing this from naturally evaporated sea water. These chemical compounds are tested by the EPA, US Army, and are in use in western states with the US Forestry Service. There still is not a eternal road dust control product. But there are many solutions which might be showing significant promise and are lasting longer so fewer applications really need to be applied. This makes them less expensive in the long term.
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Since nuisance dust has many sources in the environment, a lasting answer will not be feasible. But one can find long-term products and very temporary solutions to road dust. This article covers a few of them
Kurt Tompkins works in the dust control / road dust control industry for road dust and road dust products he also develops products for night sweats for people which are sweating at night
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