I confess I missed it. Last May the nation’s fourth largest state with billions of dollars in pavement assets, in the midst of a statewide legislative debate on coal tar sealers and on the heels of the Tonawanda Coke decision quietly put into place an alternative sealer specification which calls on state agencies to use[…]
U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2011–3010 February 2011 Coal-Tar-Based Pavement Seal Coat, Polycyclic AromaticHydrocarbons (PAHs), and Environmental Health Key Findings • Dust from pavement with coal-tar-based seal coat has greatly elevated PAH concentrations compared to dust from unsealed pavement.• Coal-tar-based seal coat is the largest source of PAH contamination to 40 urban lakes[…]
Environmental and health issues with coal tar-based pavement sealers Driveway sealers containing coal tar have been used for decades to protect asphalt driveways and keep them looking “new” or uniformly black. Coal tar-based sealcoat products contain high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which can be inhaled or ingested from dust or small particles. PAHs[…]