SKIRMISHER

Italian cement maker Italcementi’s TX Active is an agent that, in the presence of light, breaks air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, benzene, and your neighbor’s halitosis through a natural chemical process called photocataysis. Apply it on walls and other surfaces, and they instantly become “self-cleaning,” smog-eating things.

TX Active not only hastens the decomposition of organic and inorganic pollutants, it also prevents their build-up on surfaces, helping to preserve a building’s pristine appearance over time.

Business Week reports:

The results so far are astonishing: A street in the town of Segrate, near Milan, with an average traffic of 1,000 cars per hour, has been repaved with the compound, “and we have measured a reduction in nitric oxides of around 60%,” says Italcementi’s spokesperson Alberto Ghisalberti. In a test over an 8,000 square meter (or approximately 2 acres) industrial area paved with active blocks near Bergamo, Italcementi’s hometown, the reduction was measured at 45%.

In large cities such as Milan, with persistent pollution problems caused by car emissions, smoke from heating systems, and industrial activities, both the company and outside experts estimate that covering 15% of all visible urban surfaces (painting the walls, repaving the roads) with products containing TX Active could abate pollution by up to 50%, depending on the specific atmospheric conditions.

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