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Florida bill allowing radioactive roads made of potentially cancer-causing mining waste signed by DeSantis (www.cbsnews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by kuontom@kbin.social to c/politics@kbin.social

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Under the new bill, Florida could have roads made of phosphogypsum, a material known by the EPA to contain a "potentially cancer-causing, radioactive gas," that's the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S.

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[–] tikitaki@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

it's a common byproduct of certain industries like fertilizer production

basically you're turning a waste product into building material so it'd be pretty cheap. you can build cheaper roads, so the state government can in theory save money

in addition, it's more or less a handout to the companies that produce this waste product because they will now have a brand new product to sell whereas before they would be paying to get rid of it

obviously it's dangerous - the EPA only allows the use of it with approval. although the law states that the florida department of transportation needs to be a study to make sure it's safe and they have until april 1st, 2024

then after that it would need to be approved by the EPA, which includes all sorts of technical analysis and study that needs to be publicly released and there's also a period of public comment

personally? i'm a floridian and hate desantis and i don't think this bill is that big of a deal. it's not like they're gonna start using this stuff tomorrow. they're going to try and see if they can find a safe way to use it. in my opinion, if there's a waste product we can use as building material and we can determine it won't cause harm to people or the environment.. why shouldn't we use it?

it's cheaper for the taxpayers and we send less shit to the waste dump

of course, this is all assuming that the checks and balances of the FDOT study & EPA approval are all in good faith. if that's hijacked by corporate interest then I don't know anymore