jon c. 

I didn't start this thread and I'm not looking to smuggle anything anywhere. And I would certainly agree that no one here is competent to answer the questions raised.

What we have here is a politically powerful industry that produces vast quantities of really filthy waste. They've been looking for ways to get rid of that waste for decades. So now they want to stick it into paving materials. They say it will be well dispersed so there's no worry. Trust us.

I'm honestly just puzzled as to how such a scheme can be readily dismissed as being of no concern to the people who use those roadways. Y'all have a lot more faith in these folks than I do. I'm not spending my days worrying about it, but I wouldn't readily accept anything the phosphate industry puts forth. I'm surprised anyone would.

livedarklions

No one actually said that, it's just not of special concern to cyclists and we're really not competent to have anything tp say other than "I don't trust this". As for what the big concerns are, the article was quoting the environmental activists who are opposing this, and they didn't mention anything other than groundwater and construction workers. Pretty sure that's not taking the phosphate industry word for it.

FBinNY 

I think it's pretty clear that there's a legitimate issue here. But it's not related to bicycling on those roads.

If the mods are reading this, maybe a move to P&R where we can take the gloves off makes sense

Pratt

Theoretically it is dangerous, but the mutated mosquitoes, alligators and Burmese pythons will get you first. Unless, of course, you crash and get road rash.

Polaris OBark

I wonder what makes people feel the need to play internet cop.

Polaris OBark

Anticipating the wannabe "moderators" ...

Kontact 

It sounds like the good voters of Florida are getting what they want out of their elected officials.

livedarklions

Florida Godzilla!

livedarklions

I wonder what makes people want to claim something is a cycling issue when it clearly isn't just so they can drag a poorly informed political debate into a bicycling forum.

jon c. 

I said my piece and was going to leave this alone, but if y'all are going to keep kvetching ....

My contention is that riding on roads paved with hazardous waste materials is a legitimate concern for cyclists.

You don't agree, so it must be political. And therefore no one should be allowed to read it.

Poorly informed? The refutation of my contention is based on a single sentence in a single article in the internet. But you're absolutely certain that cyclists should not be concerned about hazardous wastes under their tires.

smh ....

livedarklions

I didn't say no one should see it, I said it belongs in a forum that's either political and/or competent to handle the technical issues. This forum is neither.

The refutation of your contention is based on one more sentence than your contention is. The level of radiation involved is so low that your contention is completely groundless. We're talking about parts per billion in the material itself divided by the parts per billion of airborne particles on the road being inhaled by the cyclist. You can contend all you want, it's still absurd. SMH x2.

Polaris OBark

The problem is that contaminated dust, when inhaled and deposited in the lungs, presents far more of a risk than does (radioactive) dust in the wind.

I also know you know this, and you are just being obtuse for entertainment (?) purposes.

Polaris OBark

Exactly. Thank you for stating this so clearly, and in terms that can only be dismissed with considerable efforts and intellectual contortion.

livedarklions

All you're doing here is demonstrating your ignorance of probability.

The problem with that is that a tiny proportion of a miniscule amount is essentially nothing. Your chances of inhaling any dust from the road are virtually zero, but even if you do, the chances that the dust you actually inhale contains any radioactive particles is also virtually zero. Virtually zero times virtually zero is not a probability worth worrying about. No one seriously interested in the topic is stating this risk is of any concern, instead focusing on much larger risks to construction workers and groundwater contamination. The only reason you two are focusing on this particularly silly scenario is because you're desperate to make the topic relevant to cycling. I'll note that you admitted in the OP that the only reason you posted it here was because you aren't able to post it in p&r.

livedarklions

Polaris OBark

I'm a chemist. You are a lawyer (albeit one with an abnormally low reading comprehension.)

I will give you credit for some idiot-logic consistency; it wasn't that long ago you were telling everyone SARS-CoV-2 wasn't spread by airborne transmission.

Stick to what you are bad at.

livedarklions

Whoa, holy ad hominem fallacy,dude! And a big ass lie in it to boot.
Don't care if you're a chemist, what you're saying is objectively stupid and you can't defend it except to categorically lie about what I said about a completely different subject. I was convinced very early that COVID was spreading by indoor airborne transmission and rarely if ever outdoors. In hindsight, that appears to be about 100% correct. I can't remember, but were you the fool who was babbling about clouds of viruses floating from town to town like volcanic ash?

Go ahead Mr. Chemist, tell us exactly how much radioactive material can one expect to inhale in a lifetime of riding a bicycle on a road only partially constructed from very weakly radioactive material. Start by explaining just how much pulverized road surface you calculate will be kicked up by the tires towards your nose and mouth, and what percentage of that will be inhaled, and what percentage of that inhaled dust will be radioactive, and how long it would take for that amount to be any more than the background radiation one absorbs constantly due to living anywhere on planet earth. Assail my logic, not my credentials. Show your math. Claiming to be a scientist doesn't make anything you've asserted scientifically valid.
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PhilFo 

12 posts after you took offense to my pedantic comment, here we are. Irony?

PhilFo 

13 posts...

livedarklions

Pot, kettle, black.

Kontact 

Excuse me? Cyclists are going to have some of the highest exposure because we aren't in air conditioning and we're riding on the shoulder where the dust ends up.

Polaris OBark

PS: https://www.bikeforums.net/21839499-post33.html

livedarklions

Seriously? You think it's transmitted outdoors between cyclists not riding together? At this point, there's no excuse for that, outdoor distance transmission has been proven to be nearly impossible.
So, either you are out and out lying or you really don't have any reading comprehension.

I am not going to relitigate that thread, but that doesn't deny in any way that COVID is airborne. I even stated that at that time (2020), I wouldn't draft out of caution. But I defy you to cite any documented case of transmission from one cyclist to another at a distance in an outdoor setting.
Quote directly exactly where I supposedly denied airborne transmission. I double dog dare you. All I said was dispersal pattern modeling based on walking people was useless in predicting the dispersal pattern of cyclists.

You directly lied about what I said, the fact that you would do that rather than defend your inane assertions in this thread speaks volumes about your dishonesty and intellectual weakness.

livedarklions

Yes, and bicycle tires are infamous for grinding pavement into dust and kicking it up. Seriously, do you guys really not understand how little pavement dust is getting kicked up into the air, let alone inhaled? I see piles of sand on the edges of the road where I live, but that's because they dump in on the ice and snow. That stuff doesn't go airborne because I ride over it from time to time and there's a fair amount of it. Pretty sure there's not a lot of piles of ground up pavement on the side of any road I've ever seen.

zandoval 

What? Me worry... I still wear a mask in crowded places against Flu, Bugs, Colds, Bacteria, and BAD BREATH. But that's me... As a health care provider I have been wearing a mask or cravat for one reason or another for over 55 years. Over seas if for nothing else but to keep the fly's outta your mouth and nose. Googles too...

Now as to Radiation in the OP: Who knows... I am sure the guy in the picture did not ride his bike as long as he would have liked...



gettyimages - Hiroshima 1945