Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a new bill into law that would explore the use of a known carcinogen in the state’s roads. Described as a “reckless handout to the fertilizer industry,” the bill could lead to the introduction of phosphogypsum as a road construction material.
The measure seeks to determine if it should be added to the list of recyclable materials that can be used in road construction, alongside rubber from tires, mixed plastics, and construction steel. However, unlike those items, phosphogypsum is considered too dangerous to be dumped in landfills.
The material is a byproduct of phosphate mining for the fertilizer industry, and is described by the EPA as a radioactive material that contains “small amounts” of uranium and radium, per CBS News. As a result, it must be stored in a gypstack system, not a landfill, to prevent it from coming in contact with people and the environment.
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That is because phosphogypsum emits radon gas, which is the second-biggest cause of lung cancer behind smoking. The gas is linked to 21,000 deaths from that illness every year in the U.S.
Fortunately, the new bill hasn’t actually approved the use of phosphogypsum in Florida roads. Instead, the state plans to conduct a study to determine the feasibility of using the material. But even that is causing controversy among people like Ragan Whitlock, a staff attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, who said he has little confidence in Florida’s ability to manage a project like this.
“The feasibility study that the Florida Department of Transportation would create is only aimed at addressing whether this would be a suitable construction material,” he told CBS. “The Florida Department of Transportation is not in the position to make a finding about the health and safety of this product to Floridians and our environment.”
Meanwhile, others, like Elise Bennett, director for Florida and the Caribbean at the Center for Biological Diversity, argued that the state’s lawmakers are “paving the way to a toxic legacy generations of Floridians will have to grapple with.”
The state says that it “may consider any prior or ongoing studies of phosphogypsum’s road suitability in the fulfillment of this duty,” as part of its study, which must be completed by April 1, 2024.
Fortunately, regardless of what the state finds, the EPA says Florida’s bill does not affect its regulations, and that any request to use it will have to be approved by the agency. Unfortunately, DeSantis may have more sway over the organization if his bid to become president is successful.
