Page 135 - Challenges in Corrosion Costs Causes Consequences and Control(2015)

DATA COLLECTION AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS 113

Some community benefits cannot be considered purely as a function of market
forces. The perception of time-value money of an individual is different from that
of a community. The time-value of money is very high and the consumer will not
spend money at the present time for a benefit occurring in the future unless the ben-
efit is clearly apparent. If the values of corrosion prevention are not perceived at the
time of purchase, then there may be insufficient incentive to pay for those corrosion
prevention incentives that would preserve community resources in the long term.
The purchase of corrosion prevention measures in consumer goods is similar to
the purchase of safety features in automobiles such as seat belts in cars. The pur-
chaser may not pay for this feature although the long-term benefits in saving lives and
money are present. In the case of automobile safety measures, the dilemma for the
community is resolved by the government regulation of mandatory use of seat belts in
automobiles. In the case of corrosion prevention measures, government intervention
could lead to improved corrosion prevention awareness and practice.
Capital works are undertaken by local community forces, and these organizations
must also take an active role in propagating the benefits of corrosion prevention.
With regard to the importance of corrosion to the community at large, a signifi-
cant market imperfection is that the community’s conception of corrosion is different
from the effects of corrosion in reality. In general, the community at large perceives
“corrosion” as unimportant.
In many cases, the consequences of corrosion are not even attributed to “corro-
sion.” When a building collapses because of the corrosion of reinforcing steel bar in
concrete, it is attributed to “faulty materials” instead of corrosion.
Corrosion is often perceived as a slow, inevitable degradation process. It is gen-
erally viewed as “rust,” and it is plainly visible in rusting cars or corrugated iron
sheeting. But many people are unaware of the significance of insidious corrosion
effects, for example, on modern, technically advanced aircraft.
There is a widespread view that the effects of corrosion are insignificant and hence
very little attention is given to the likely effects of corrosion and how these effects can
be avoided. This erroneous perception of the neglect of corrosion effects may explain
why it is surprising to note the total and avoidable costs of corrosion to be significant.
Another significant market imperfection is the lack of technology transfer that
leads to the lack of awareness about corrosion and the available methods to combat
corrosion. There are many instances where unnecessary costs are incurred because
of incorrect specification of materials or where inadequate corrosion protection mea-
sures have been applied to proprietary equipment. The information that is required to
avoid the corrosion problem was available and could have been used to control the
corrosion problem.
Unnecessary costs are incurred for repair and replacement because of improper
selection of materials such as the stainless steel components for environments where
they fail to perform satisfactorily. Concrete spalling because of the corrosion of rein-
forcing steel may be a consequence of a lack of awareness of the reasoning used in
construction codes of practice. Thus the costs incurred in the case of premature degra-
dation of public buildings by corrosion must be met by the community and financed
by third parties for the repairs.