Road salt: the future and ecological risks

Various deicing reagents containing chlorides are used in cities. Sodium chloride (the most common and lowest cost deicing reagent) (Autelitano et al., 2019), calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, multicomponent reagents containing different chlorides, and other reagents are used in different countries. However, all chloride road salts are hazardous to the environment, due to the chloride toxicity (Gladkova & Gladkov, 2021). Why should the use of sodium chloride as road salt be urgently reduced? The negative effects of sodium chloride on the environment include: soil salinization, development of soil solonetzicity, impacts on urban and rural plant and animal, surface and groundwater pollution, and possible negative effect on human health and air pollution. Studies suggest negative effects of sodium chloride on urban plants. Salt stress causes growth reduction, nutritional imbalances, and oxidative stress that reduces the decorative quality of ornamental plants (García-Caparrós & Lao, 2018). The application of deicing salts for winter road maintenance is recognized as a major contributor to the decline of urban trees (Equiza et al., 2017) and urban landscaping in general (Gladkov & Gladkova, 2022).