Industry Denial of Toxic House Dust is Off-Track
A few weeks ago we introduced a series of posts to look at the pavement sealcoat industry’s latest PR piece to get people to continue to use their coal tar product. Now we’ll investigate their claim that there really isn’t any truth to the studies about contaminated dust from these sealers getting into homes and […]
CONSUMER ALERT: It isn’t Just Coal Tar That Lacks Transparency
Over the years, we’ve caught industry representatives getting cute with the names of their products in order to stay one step ahead of negative public knowledge and perceptions of their coal tar sealers. First they dropped “‘coal” out of their name and added “refined” to give it the perception that all of the impurities are […]
Do Pavement Sealers Cause Cancer?
The last post on this site discussed a recently introduced brochure published by the trade group representing the manufacturers of coal tar sealers for asphalt. The group is the Pavement Coatings Technology Council or PCTC. We reviewed the first of seven claims made in that brochure on why the use of coal tar sealers are safe. […]
Coal Tar Spin: What the Latest Industry PR Piece Isn’t Telling You
New Brochure Unveiled Among Unimpressed Audience Last month the Pavement Coatings Technology Council (PCTC) unveiled their latest attempt to get people to continue to use coal tar sealers (or their new sanitized name “refined tar sealers”). It was presented at a session with at the National Pavement Expo in Charlotte, North Carolina. More than 2/3 […]
US EPA Debunks Industry’s Witch Hunt Conspiracy Theory
In a recent letter, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) supported the coal tar sealer research findings of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in spite of an industry complaint. The industry had sought to have a publication by the EPA removed from their website. The publication, which we have linked to here, is […]
New Sealer Alternatives Aren’t All They’re Cracked Up to Be
New Michigan Ban First to Outlaw New Products ‘Tis the Season for grand beginnings from humble locations! In that spirit Van Buren Township, Michigan, with little fanfare, ushered in a new era in pavement sealant regulation: banning all products which exceed a certain level of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). It is the first of its […]
Pick Your Poison; aka Driveway Sealer Scams
Linden, NJ — Earlier this month an 85-year old woman was scammed by a door-to-to contractor offering her a “great deal” on sealing her driveway . She paid $7,000 for an incomplete job after a group of young men came to the house and appeared to use black spray paint instead of pavement sealer. A […]
Apples, Oranges and Coal Tar Shampoo
On several occasions industry has resorted to the old “coal tar shampoo” tactic. In essence, it goes like this: “If coal tar sealer is so bad for people, then why can you buy it in shampoo?” Recently a state legislator echoed the argument fed him by industry; hook, line and sinker: “As long as you […]
You Can’t Handle the Truth About Coal Tar Sealers
I’ve seen some fragments of the new literature put out by industry to help contractors convince customers that there is sound science to justify the continued use of this polluting product. My response: nearly speechless at the incredibly disrespectful display (to contractors & the public) of deceptive statistics ever seen. Its best use would be […]
CyberSquatting Flattering, But an Unethical, Desperate Industry Effort
A few weeks ago a reader pointed out that some web addresses or domain names with the term “coaltarfreeamerica” in them are now being routed to the website of the Pavement Coatings Technology Council (PCTC)*. For example, if you type in “www.coaltarfreeamerica.org,” in your browser’s address box, then you’ll go to their website. Who is […]