Of Salts and Safety

Almost every community in the northern U.S. uses de-icing salts to help clear snowbound roads. The use of salts is up 300% since 1960 (to 9,000.000 tons last year). Now these cheap and efficient deicers have been identified as an annoying source of pollution in at least 13 states.

The major problem with the massive use of de-icing salts--in addition to the havoc they wreak on automobile underbodies--is that they damage roadside vegetation and, more important, seep into nearby water supplies. The salts not only give the water a brackish taste, but can be a genuine health hazard as well. In Massachusetts, 62 communities were warned by the state health department last year that their drinking water contained enough sodium to endanger the lives of people with heart or kidney ailments who were on strict low-salt diets. Tests in Minnesota disclosed that even the anticorrosive additives in the salts, designed to prevent auto rust, can do more harm than good: phosphates in the additives are nutrients that can speed eutrophication, the natural aging process of bodies of water. Some additives used to prevent the salts' caking contain compounds that decompose into poisonous cyanide ions.

In response to such complaints, some chemical companies are trying to figure out ways of taking the sting out of deicers. Meanwhile, it is hard to argue with highway officials who insist that banning the deicers would present an even greater hazard to public health and safety. As evidence they cite the example of Burlington, Mass., which last December decided to ban the use of salts on its roads after detecting high sodium levels in its drinking water. This winter the community's schools have been closed more often than those of neighboring towns because of icy roads, and minor auto accidents have increased notably.

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