The materials battleground is a very heated one and in today’s information age, finding credible and truthful information is often a daunting task. The information below provides quick "facts" on steel’s environmental benefits and performance advantages.
Statement:
Aluminum advocates often claim a 40% weight reduction in automotive applications over comparable steel applications.
Fact:
Claims about 40% weight reduction for aluminium versus steel are often made in comparison to conventional steels used in automotive applications 15 to 20 years ago. Such examples often result from a very narrowly defined load case without package space restrictions instead of current, real-world practical cases. Published engineering studies show that when aluminum is compared to advanced high-strength steels in actual applications, on average, aluminium achieves only a 9-11% weight reduction, and usually with a high cost premium!
Statement: As a renewable resource that absorbs and sequesters CO2, wood is a more sustainable material for homebuilding than steel.
Fact:
The first part of this statement is true -- wood is "renewable" and does sequester CO2. The second part? Not so much. There are many aspects to sustainability and two of the most important are recyclability and habitat destruction. Anyone who compares the “before” and “after” pictures of a landscape where trees have been harvested can see that wood is not the most sustainable building material. Steel, on the other hand, is completely recyclable. Every piece of steel used in construction can be recovered and recycled again and again into new products. Which is more "sustainable?”
Statement: Aluminum claims that a 10% reduction in vehicle weight equals a 5 to 7% fuel savings.
Fact:
It’s not that simple. A 10% weight reduction can achieve between 1.9 to 8.2% fuel savings, depending on driving cycle, vehicle size, powertrain selection and if the powertrain is adjusted to the vehicle’s reduced weight. Most real world situations do not involve powertrain resizing, so 2 to 3% fuel savings are more likely than 5 to 7% for every 10% mass reduction.
Statement: When working on live-line installations, steel poles pose a greater danger to utility linemen than wood poles.
Fact:
The facts say wood conducts electricity quite well so no matter what the task at hand, or the type of pole a lineman is working with — steel, wood, concrete or fiberglass — the rules remain the same: safety procedures should always be followed to the letter. Download an article from Electric Light and Power, “Working Live Can be Managed Safely” by Dave Kenney of Chatham-Kent Hydro.
Statement:
Canned fruits and vegetables are less nutritious than their fresh counterparts.
Fact:
The facts say some canned fruits and vegetables are even richer in antioxidants than their fresh and frozen counterparts. Here are some examples, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture:
- One-half cup of canned tomatoes provides 11.8 milligrams of lycopene compared to just 3.7 milligrams found in one medium fresh, uncooked tomato.
- Mild-heat treatment of carrots and spinach, as used in commercial canning, enhances the bioavailability of carotene, which is converted to Vitamin A in the body.
- Canned pumpkin contains a higher concentration of beta carotene than fresh pumpkin because of the canning process. One-half cup of canned pumpkin contains three times more Vitamin A than one-half cup of fresh, cooked pumpkin.
- The absorption of lutein in corn, an antioxidant that may reduce the risks of cataracts and macular degeneration, is enhanced by heat from the canning process.