Well the research study should start-off and begin with a thorough
chemical content of the 10 most widely sold brands of asphalt roof
shingles. If it is found that they contain no lead, no mercury, no
selenium, no arsenic or parts per billion that is less than ambient
soil then much or most of the research would already be done. The logic
is that if the shingles when bought new at the store do not contain bad
chemicals more than the ambient soil then they are harmless.

Also, a independent research test should test whether the plastic bags
and plastic containers and plastic cups all derived from petrol stocks
that the asphalt shingles are derived, tested for atoms of mercury,
lead etc that the above tests for. Because I would not be surprized in
the least bit that my Tupperware and plastics in my kitchen contain
atoms of mercury, lead that the ambient soil contains in parts per
billion.

As Sean started his above post by saying that plants thrive best near
the roads in his dry climate is observational evidence that plants like
asphalt and is in agreement with my observations that they like asphalt
roads and they like asphalt roof shingles as mulch. Observation is
proof that plants like asphalt. As to whether they intake harmful
chemicals due to the proximity of asphalt is an open research
question.

And whilst on this subject, has anyone tested the produce of California
compared to other states in that cars and vehicles are one of the
greatest single polluters and given the numbers of autos in California
in close vicinity to their farm produce and considering the dry desert
climate of California that those chemicals would build up in the soils.
So I would suspect that the load of bad chemicals would be higher in
California produce than in produce from say Oregon or Washington state.
It is one of those things that the closer one is to alot of humans and
human activity has the highest chances of pollutants and contaminants.

Archimedes Plutonium
www.iw.net/~a_plutonium
whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies