Unlike sand, the deicers fully dissolve and vanish together with the melting snow; besides, they consist of mineral salts that are well-studied and safe for people’s health. “Its ingredients are regular salt, food additive calcium chloride, animal food additive sodium formate and crushed marble as a friction material. All these substances are quite well-known” - says Anna Klimentova, head of the Administration of the National Association of Winter Maintenance. According to her, the composition of deicers is similar to sea water which no one considers an allergen.
BIONORD’s eco-friendliness has been recently verified by Rospotrebnadzor’s Department for Management of Public Hygiene Sanitary Supervision. Researchers of the Department have analyzed the substance against several criteria, including “acute toxicity, inhalation hazard, skin irritating effect” and in terms of heavy metal content.
The tests have been conducted in Moscow where the deicer is being used for almost 10 years. “Taking the results of these tests into account we can conclude that the deicing materials we’ve researched can be categorized as low-hazard substances for inhalation and have no acute toxicity” - shared Timur Muragimov, the Department’s head at the roundtable discussion dedicated to safety of deicers, held at the State Duma on November 20th.
Earlier, the issue of deicers safety for people has been mentioned by Aleksandr Pampura, Chief Supernumerary Allergologist and Immunologist of the Moscow Healthcare Department. “I can say unequivocally that the deicers applied in the city do not cause allergy” said the official.
Moscow ecologists also keep track of BIONORD’s impact on soil. Viktoria Mazlova from the Russian capital’s Department for Nature Management and Environment Protection said that ever since 2009, “Mosecomonitoring” performs regular sampling of snow, soil, and waste waters, and takes wipe samples from leaves. “We look at how the situation changes (first snow, mid-winter and early spring, we analyze soils and vegetation). The results are positive” - stated the expert, adding that the concentration of chlorides in soil is two times lower according to the latest measurements than in previous winter periods, while soil salinity in the city has reduced by a factor of 3 compared to 2009 and 97% of the Moscow roadside lawns are not saline.
Krasnoyarsk is by far not the first city which uses BIONORD. “Our enterprise has been manufacturing BIONORD for over 12 years. During this time the formula has been continuously improved and the application technology has been updated. However, each city is unique. The fleet of equipment and machinery available, the layout of streets and road network, the number of contractor employees, the intensity of traffic, the climate conditions – all these variables require fine-tuning of our technology. This is the current focus of Krasnoyarsk road authorities”- said Evgeny Nemirovsky, UZPM Commercial Director.
The use of modern deicing materials is a global trend resulting from the growing traffic intensity. For the city to keep moving, its streets should be cleared of snow and ice. BIONORD deicing materials do exactly that, making the roads and pedestrian areas safe in winter.
Notably, all cities using BIONORD have achieved similar results: during the period they use the deicer, the number of traffic accidents due to unsatisfactory road conditions has decreased in Moscow by 67%, in Kazan by 45%, in Ekaterinburg by 72%.
The state-of-the-art BIONORD deicer was adopted by Krasnoyarsk last winter to ensure conformity with the federal standard (GOST) requirement for municipalities to clean the roads in winter down to clear asphalt. According to experts, similar deicing applications are used in all countries where “black asphalt” standard exists. This is the only way to ensure good traction of the vehicle’s wheels on the surface of the road, and, consequently, the safety of drivers and pedestrians. The sand-and-salt mixture formerly used in Krasnoyarsk cannot handle this task.
As it happens, Russia is the only country in the world putting thousand tons of sand in the streets of heavily populated cities, adding to the dirt already present. The resulting mixture not only clogs rainwater sewers but also requires additional cleaning during the spring and summer seasons. The use of sand is very limited outside of Russia as its application presents a health hazard for the population. Its crystals absorb exhaust from vehicles and industrial enterprises. The road sand disintegrates into dust and in spring mixes with the air for the whole city to breathe. This poisonous mixture causes lung diseases, allergies and other health problems.