Revealing Toxic Skin Exposure
Maybe you’ve seen the headlines across the country discussing the problems with coal tar pavement sealer. This video demonstrates an easy way to see if skin-based exposure to these chemicals is really happening. Other well-known routes of exposure are inhalation and ingestion. All over North America playgrounds still use coal tar sealers. It exposes children […]
Seeing Asthma Through Tar-Tinted Glasses
Ever meet that gregarious sort that moves through a crowd, not just greeting folks, but dispensing encouragement like rain to a parched ground? Peter is just like that. He’s old enough to have grown children, probably in his fifties or sixties. I watched him move through a crowd with grace at the Transplant Games of […]
Should Pregnant Women Avoid Coal Tar Sealed Surfaces?
Is that an appropriate question or might some say this is too extreme? Let’s review some things to consider: PAHs affect the unborn in many negative ways. Research by the United States Geological Survey says that coal tar sealants are high in PAHs and for years continue to off-gas high levels of PAHs to the […]
Sealant Worker Safety Myth in Jeopardy
The sealer industry is fond of saying how safe their product is for worker safety. No evidence, no claims, no one harmed. Even during this spring’s legislative season, the statements have continued. Our position has been that it is faulty logic to claim a statement as true without any comprehensive analysis to support it. Until […]
Study: What Doesn’t Kill You, Just Might Give You Cancer
Coal Tar Sealants Runoff Packed with Fast-Acting Toxins And Slow-Release Carcinogens Months After Application Sorry Kelly Clarkson, unfortunately “what doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger” doesn’t apply to coal tar pavement sealers. New research from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) leaves one wondering when it is safe to apply coal tar pavement sealants. The report, Concentrations of […]
It’s a ‘Fine’ Time for Illinois to Pass Coal Tar Sealant Ban Legislation
Legislative newcomer, Laura Fine, earlier this month introduced legislation to ban coal tar containing pavement products, aka “sealers,” from sale and use in the entire state beginning next year. The legislation, HB 4599, has the backing of the Illinois Sierra Club and others and is based upon the research completed by the DuPage River/Salt Creek […]
What Would’ve Happened if Brer Rabbit Didn’t Get the Coal Tar Off?
Perhaps I’m dating myself, but remember the old Uncle Remus story where Brer Rabbit, who was covered in tar, tricked Brer Fox into throwing him into a briar patch? There he was able to scrape the tar off of himself. But what would’ve happened if Brer Rabbit didn’t get the tar off? That question was […]
Oklahoma Public Health Official: It’s Not OK to Use Coal Tar Sealants “Anytime, by Anyone, Anywhere”
The conversation about coal tar pavement sealers has taken place in many areas around the country, but in Oklahoma it has been pretty quiet over the last decade–until now. Last week, KFOR-TV, Oklahoma City broke that silence with 4 and a half minute piece on their 10 pm news. It included a description of what […]
Highlights of First Great Lakes Sealant Reduction Webinar
Cleaning up all of their stormwater basins, like this one, couldcost Inver Grove Heights, MN as much as $27 million. This week marked the first in a series of webinars hosted by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) which included important new information about the progress being made with sealant applicators, health-related effects from coal tar […]
More Repetition Than Revelation in Coal Tar Sealer Industry’s New Bias Claims
A few weeks ago, representatives of the coal tar sealer industry came out with new claims of bias by USGS researchers. Press releases, presentations and insider editorials were coordinated to push back on recent research by the USGS and Baylor University, which found high lifetime cancer risks when living near a coal tar sealed parking […]