The head of a national group supporting the use of coal tar in driveway sealing said she will be at today’s 7 p.m. meeting in Van Buren Township.
The township has invited local contractors who do driveway and parking lot sealing to a workshop at township hall. Officials said they plan to explain the new VBT ordinance banning the PAHs in coal tar. PAHs have been said to cause cancer.
The workshop is to spell out the new rules to contractors and give them information on what other products they can use and where to get them to make VBT a safer community.
Not so fast, says the Pavement Coatings Technology Council of Alexandria, VA. It accuses VBT of using faulty evidence to enact the ban and want it repealed. The council has a list of studies that says coal tar is safe.
VBT has already passed the ordinance and it can’t be repealed at this workshop, so a debate is not on the agenda.
VBT has relied on retired university profession Dave Wilson and his colleague in the Huron River Watershed Council, Rebecca Esselman, for its evidence, also from many sources including the U.S. Geological Survey.
Officials at the city of Belleville and Sumpter Township may be watching this carefully. Dr. Wilson gave a talk on coal tar to the Sumpter Township Planning Commission and on the same night VBT Environmental Commission president David Brownlee addressed Belleville planners. No action yet in either place.
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1 Comment
Weather
Ms. Otzman:
Thank you for your ongoing coverage of this issue for your readers.
I must confess that I may have listened or read more propaganda put out by the Pavement Coatings Technology Council than almost anyone else on the planet. My website addresses most if not all issues ever raised by the PCTC. Just use the search engine on the site and look for the word “industry” or “myth.”
While I haven’t heard a summary of the meeting, I can bet how it went. Did they talk about “peer-reviewed” studies showing that this isn’t a pollutant? Most likely.
Of course they trotted out coal tar shampoo which is comparing a controlled-use, short-duration medical treatment to something cast into the environment where all are exposed to it.
Did they tell you that they funded those studies and that, by definition, is not peer review? Probably not.
Did they say are the victims of a witch hunt by the USGS? Probably so.
Did they mention that there are an addition 15 organizations including the USEPA that have found all manners of problems with coal tar sealers? No.
Did they talk about any studies they have done which shows the safety of coal tar sealers to children or pregnant women? Definitely no, because they have never done them.
I would encourage your readers to spend a little time looking at both sides of this issue. Guess where you’ll end up? Right where Van Buren Township is today.