This is interesting!! Toxic driveways? Cities ban coal tar sealants CHICAGO – June 21, 2013 – Could your driveway be making you sick? Mounting research suggests it could. It’s prompting cities, states and businesses to ban a common pavement sealant linked to higher cancer risks and contaminated soil. These sealants, used mostly in the eastern half of the USA to beautify pavement and extend its life, contain up to 35 percent coal tar pitch, which the National Toxicology Program considers a human carcinogen. Last month, Minnesota became the second state – after Washington – to ban pavement sealants that contain coal tar, and the New York Assembly passed a similar bill. In April, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, reintroduced such legislation in the U.S. Congress. Last week in Chicago, the city’s Committee on Finance held a meeting to discuss a newly proposed ban on the sale or use of these sealants. Officials are acting to limit the cost of removing and disposing of contaminated sediment in waterways. They’ve passed bans in recent years in dozens of cities and counties in Minnesota; Washington, D.C.; Illinois; Texas; New York; Maryland and Washington state. Others, in six additional states, have restricted use. “We’re at a tipping point” in the movement against coal tar sealants, says Nick Kelso, owner of Minnesota-based Jet-Black International. His seal-coating company, which has franchises in 13 states, is phasing out its use of them. He’s turning to the alternative: asphalt-based products that he says are improving, cost about the same and contain much lower levels of worrisome chemicals. Major retailers such as Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace and United Hardware have stopped selling coal tar sealants. The product gradually wears off and breaks down into particles that are washed off by rain into streams, blown by wind or tracked into homes on the soles of shoes. Some of its toxic compounds evaporate into the air, which is why sealed parking lots give off a strong odor. In 40 urban lakes nationwide, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) found these sealants account for about half of hazardous chemicals known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, while vehicle-related sources such as motor oil account for one-fourth. They say the sealants elevate cancer risks. The industry disagrees, saying government and academic studies are flawed and there’s no definitive proof that its coal tar products cause harm. Research disputed “This is controversial science,” says Anne LeHuray, executive director of the Pavement Coatings Technology Council, which has lobbied successfully against proposed bans. She says the product has been safely used for decades by applicators who follow industry guidelines. She says her group’s repeated requests for detailed data from USGS research have been denied, so it has funded its own studies that raise questions about the federal government’s findings. “We have done rigorous, scientific surveys and analyses showing coal tar sealants are a major sources of PAHs in the environment,” says Judy Crane, a water quality scientist at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency who has co-authored USGS research. Academic studies, including separate ones by the University of New Hampshire and Missouri State University, have also found elevated PAHs in areas adjacent to parking lots covered in coal tar. “It’s been a detective story,” says Barbara Mahler, a USGS hydrologist who has co-led the government research. She says many Americans may be surprised to find their blacktops could be a danger: “It’s been under our noses, but we’ve never really thought about it.” Not until a decade ago when officials in Austin suspected something was wrong. They found high PAHs in area waterways and, noting that nearby parking lots were newly coated with coal tar products, they surmised the sealants were the culprit. Subsequent research by the USGS and other scientists backed that up. It found the PAH concentration in settled house dust in 23 ground-level Austin apartments adjacent to coal-tar-sealed parking lots was 25 times higher than the dust in apartments next to lots without such sealant.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 18:33:07 +0000
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