What Is It?

• Calcium chloride, a white crystalline inorganic salt, is commonly found in one of its hydrated forms as it readily absorbs water. It is this ability to absorb water and facilitate drying that makes calcium chloride very adaptable in its applications.
  Because calcium chloride is a high-production-volume chemical that is under the scope of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Screening Information DataSet (SIDS) program, many major manufacturers of the substance must conduct a thorough assessment. According to the OECD SIDS report, in 2002, production of calcium chloride in North America is estimated at staggering 1,678,000 metric tons per year.
  Commercial Calcium chloride products, according to the OECD SIDS report, are supplied as flakes, pellets, pebbles, powders and solutions.
  
  

Winter Roads

• According to the OECD SIS report, 22 percent of calcium chloride use in North America is for de-icing. The OECD report further relates that the Canadian Assessment of Road Salts attributes approximately 100,000 metric tons of the five million metric tons of salt used to de-ice the roads in the winter season in Canada to calcium chloride.
  
  

Not Just for Ice

• In North America, the second most common use of calcium chloride, as documented by the OECD SIDS report, is road stabilization and dust control of unsurfaced roads. A team at Texas A&M found that using calcium chloride in combination with fly ash as a treatment to control dust on unsurfaced roads led to an overall better stabilization of the roadway surface than if either material were used alone. The study concluded that the individual mineralogical and physicochemical characteristics of the fly ash and the calcium chloride interact, resulting in a phenomenon that the researchers are calling "surface-activated stabilization."
  
  

Medicine and Food

• In medicine, calcium chloride is used to treat calcium deficiencies, hypocalcaemia, magnesium intoxication, cardiac failure and hyperkalemia. In some cases, it is also used to treat drug overdoses.
  In terms of its use in food, calcium chloride is included in the Food and Drug Administration's list of food additives "generally regarded as safe." Calcium chloride is commonly included in food and animal feed as a drying agent or filler.
  While the use of calcium carbonate is far more popular in calcium supplements, calcium chloride is sometimes used in nutritional supplements for humans and livestock.
  
  

Other Industrial and Consumer Uses

• The OECD SIDS report lists several other common industrial uses of calcium chloride, including in condensation traps, in industrial processing (primarily as a drying agent), as an additive in plastics, as a drainage facilitator for wastewater treatment, as an accelerator in concrete to enable quicker drying, and for oil and gas well fluids.
  
  

Warning

• Calcium chloride is known to be an irritant. In dust form, the substance can irritate the respiratory tract. Direct contact with the skin can cause irritation or burns. Because of these properties, prolonged medical use or use as a supplement is generally not recommended.
  Calcium chloride does not pose a threat in terms of toxicity when ingested at normal levels. The average person ingests 160 to 345 mg of calcium chloride per day as a food additive with no adverse effects.