»Concrete Miscellany

Concrete is second only to water as the most consumed substance on Earth, with almost one ton of it being used for each human every year, reports French cement maker Lafarge Coppee SA. Globe and Mail, October 20, 2000

Concrete paving eats traffic pollution… titanium dioxide-containing paving blocks use sunlight to absorb nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere and converts them into harmless nitrogen and oxygen. Concrete quarterly, August 2000

World production of cement is 1.56 billion metric tons. One third of this is produced in China alone. USGS Minerals information. Cement statistics. 2000.

Annual global production of concrete hovers around 5 billion cubic yards. Cement Association of Canada.

In 1824, Joseph Aspdin, a bricklayer and mason in Leeds, England, took out a patent on a hydraulic cement that he called portland cement because its color resembled the stone quarried on the Isle of Portland off the British coast. Cement Association of Canada

Cement, an ultra-fine gray powder, binds sand and rocks into a mass or matrix of concrete. Cement is the key ingredient of concrete. Cement Association of Canada

Twice as much concrete is used in construction around the world than the total of all other building materials including wood, steel, plastic and aluminum. Cement Association of Canada.

Supplementary cementing materials such as fly ash and slag … have the potential to substantially reduce CO2 emissions over current practices. Canada, Office of Energy Efficiency, November 15, 1998 Vol. II No. 22

Cement kilns have been identified as a stationary source that emit more than 25 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx). EPA-453/R-94-004. http://www.epa.gov/ttn/catc/dir1/cement.pdf

Carbonaceous material used for making cement releases significant amounts of carbon dioxide in creating the final product. http://www.iitap.iastate.edu/gccourse/chem/gases/gases_lecture.html