Tire house may be deadly

It's amazing that while private industry is spending millions of dollars to find safe, environmental ways to dispose of discarded tires, along comes a couple promoting tires as building material (Tire house draws hundreds of visitors, New in Homes section, Dec 23).

If Chuck and Pat Potter and their architect had invested in a back issue of Mother Earth News, they would have found that their tire house idea had been looked at in the early '60s and '70s - and was abandoned due to the following health concerns:

• Carbon black (reinforcing pigment), which makes up one third of a tire, is manufactured from heavy aromatic petroleum feedstocks containing many heavy metals, such as lead, mercury and arsenic.
• Current material safety data sheets from carbon black manufacturers list PNA (polynuclear aromatic compounds and a known carcinogen) in the carbon black makeup.
• European studies link tumors and respiratory problems to exposure to carbon black and other insoluble dust particles.
• Distillate oil, which is easily extracted from tires, contains benzene and toluene - known carcinogens.

A tire under the proper conditions will break down into the above products (albeit in 80 years or more). We do not need these products leaching out into our water systems.

I hope the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation takes this into consideration if it considers the Potters' application for funding to turn the project into a test site. And the Township of Limerick, which has delayed the couple's building permit, shoild realize this project for what it is - a tire dump. The project should be dismantled before the Potters' "Earthship" turns into a "Deathship."

Chris George

Wellandport