Home Improvement

DETROIT -- Tim Allen's a man who knows what he likes: spending time with his family, cheering on a good football game, messing around with classic hot rods and, of course, making people laugh.

OGDEN -- When it comes to solid surfaces for countertops, vanities, and tub and shower walls, customers are beginning to feel like there are slim pickings and what is available is rather plain-looking, says Corey Erdmann, the owner of Sand & Swirl, who decided to do something about it a few years ago.

CHICAGO--If a company dumped the black goop behind a factory, it would violate all sorts of environmental laws and force an expensive hazardous-waste cleanup.

But playgrounds, parking lots and driveways in many communities are coated every spring and summer with coal tar, a toxic byproduct of steelmaking that contains high levels of chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems.

Nearly two decades after industry pressured the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to exempt coal-tar-based pavement sealants from anti-pollution laws, a growing number of government and academic studies are questioning the safety of the widely used products. Research shows that the tar steadily wears off and crumbles into contaminated dust that is tracked into houses and washed into lakes.