Inside the Coal Tar Industry’s Propaganda to Stop the IL Ban

Last time I checked, the State of Illinois ended their session marking more than 700 days without a working budget. That may have contributed to the difficulty in getting a ban (HB 2958) passed, but the propaganda by the industry didn’t help.We have obtained a copy of the what the industry was distributing to legislators […]

Calling BS on Laughable, Dirty Coal Tar Industry…and the Washington Post

Yesterday the Washington Post published an article reviewing the details of US manufacturers’ complaints to the Trump Administration about regulatory burdens which hamper business. Over 150 responded. Amazingly the reporter highlighted a letter from the Pavement Coatings Technology Council and said it was among the “notable.” What was the criterion that reporter used to determine […]

Why Coal Tar Sealers Fail to Meet Consumer Protection Standards

Illinois Coal Tar Ban to be Heard by House Consumer Protection Committee ***ALERT***********************  If you want to support this legislation (HB2958) then do the following before Tuesday 3/14/2017: Please help protect our health and environment and pass the bill this time by filling out a witness slip and signing on as a proponent of the […]

“Precautionary Principle” No Longer Applies to Coal Tar Sealers

Once appropriate, the use is obsolete Back in 2003 the City of Austin was confronted with a perplexing, new hypothesis: high levels of stream contamination were coming from a common, unrecognized source – coal tar pavement sealers. The City did what good pollution investigators do. They did research. They talked to experts. They had conversations […]

Industry Tries to Heave Hail Mary to Trump Administration

Industry is seeking relief from the burden of facts about their products from the USGS. Herein lies the “hail Mary” for the coal tar industry: that somehow the Trump Administration will save an industry peddling a toxic product when the research of dozens of researchers, independent of the USGS, come to the same conclusion: it […]

Could This Be a Safer Alternative to Coal Tar Based Sealants?

A freshly sealed parking lot is generally an improvement to any property — but unless that property happens to be in one of a few places, that fresh coat of black sealant is likely potentially deadly.   The following article is republished from Construction Equipment Guide with permission. This permission is not an endorsement by Construction […]

FREE PRODUCT TESTING = NO MORE EXCUSES!

One of the latest articles on this site revealed the chemical concentrations of asphalt sealcoat for the first time. No actual product testing was done by me or anyone associated with this website. It was an accumulation of testing data which had been done by others. But some want additional independent testing of these concentrations. […]

By the Numbers: PAH Guide to Coal Tar Free Sealers

First Guide to Asphalt Sealer Test Results Until now, there hasn’t been a central location for information about the chemical concentrations of asphalt sealcoating products which don’t contain coal tar. We didn’t need to. In general asphalt-based products neatly fit in a category with low concentrations of toxins called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or “PAHs.” Coal […]

PCTC Roadshow Formula: Say Anything + Claim Anything

The Belleville-Area Independent newspaper last week ran a summary of a meeting at Van Buren Township, Michigan (VBT). You may recall that VBT is the first community to outright ban coal tar sealers in the State of Michigan and they are the first in the US to ban high-PAH sealers even those that aren’t made from […]