PCTC is sponsoring a Pavement Magazine webinar -- free to everyone -- on February 26, 2013 from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The webinar will feature John Walsh and John Walsh, Jr. from PCTC member VelveTop Products and Mike Juba from Koppers Inc.
Everyone involved with pavement sealers is aware of recent efforts by environmental activists to promote restrictions or outright bans on refined tar-based sealers (RTS). PCTC was reorganized in 2008 to focus on the science behind activists claims.
Results so far show that restricting or banning is a solution in search of a problem. Evaluation of environmental data from areas where RTS has been banned has yet to reveal an instance in which the ban was warranted or will have any beneficial effect.
Yet some elected officials and government employees in these areas seem to dismiss the notion that there could be adverse effects in making policy based on unsound science. VelveTop Products manufactures both RTS and asphalt-based sealers on Long Island, NY. The muscle of one locally powerful elected official pushed through an RTS ban in one part of VelveTop’s market area, without regard to the facts of the matter. In the webinar John Walsh and John Jr. will talk about lessons learned from the fight against the local ban, and managing change in the business climate as a result of the local ban.
The Long Island experience is an example of the difficulty the sealer industry faces. PCTC member companies and their customers find themselves fighting against unsound scientific arguments being spread by activist employees of the US government.
Because the lead activists work for the federal government they lend the credibility of the government to their advocacy of product bans or product de-selection. It can be a challenge to explain not only the technical and scientific disinformation spread by the activists to customers, local and state government officials, the public and your own employees.
In the webinar, Mike Juba of Koppers will talk about ways to communicate the facts about RTS with each of these audiences.
PCTC is excited to be sponsoring the February 26 webinar as a service to the industry, so it costs you nothing to participate but an hour of your time. Please register for free online at ForConstructionPros.com/Events.
Reach PCTC via Anne P. LeHuray, Ph.D., Pavement Coatings Technology Council, 2308 Mount Vernon Avenue, Suite 134, Alexandria, VA 22301; Phone (703) 299-8470; Fax: (703) 842-8850; [email protected]; www.pavenementcouncil.org.
