Rubber Mulch Research

(Below research provided by Natasha Harris and presented on the January 27, 2015 Meeting)

Rubber Mulch Research

January 2015
Definitions:
The tire material used on playgrounds can include the following:

• Uncompressed/loose tire shred (rubber mulch) or “crumb” on a surface
  that can be raked
  
• Tire shreds combined with a binder and then poured onto a permanent
  surface; crumb rubber infill
  
• Tiles made from tire shreds and binder that have been factory-molded
  then glued to a playground surface; crumb rubber infill
  Background:
  

• Emergency rooms treat over 200,000 kids, aged 14 and under, for playground-related injuries every year. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
  
• Much of the regulation for playgrounds focuses on safety from falls.
  
• Tire infill has higher impact attenuation than other surfaces, such as pea gravel. "In other words, it was the safest thing for a kid to fall onto." (Michael Blumenthal, former vice president of the Rubber Manufacturers Association and now an independent consultant for the industry)
  
• Consumers like rubber infill because: it does a good job of cushioning falls, it’s cheaper to maintain in the long run because it doesn't degrade like wood chips or other organic materials, and it’s a way to deal with the 290 million scrap tires generated nationwide.
  
• There has been a big push by government agencies to find ways to recycle tires.
  
• Some states, in an effort to recycle and repurpose old tires, incentivize the material. Several states give grants to municipalities, school districts and other entities to use crumb rubber. For example, Kentucky has funded 287 rubber-filled playgrounds since its program began in 2004.
  Safety of Crumb Rubber:
  

• There are no standards that regulate the chemical makeup of playground equipment and infill.
  
• Currently available studies on rubber infill are "inadequate."
  
• “More than two dozen studies have attempted to measure the potential health risks of crumb rubber surfaces. While many have found no negative
  

health effects, some doctors and toxicologists believe these studies are limited and insufficient to establish conclusively that shredded rubber surfaces are safe.” (NBC News article)

• The Environmental Protection Agency says there are insufficient studies to warrant any statement about risk. The EPA did a limited study of 4 playgrounds and fields in 2008 and found the concentrations of materials that made up tire crumb to be below levels considered harmful. Due to the small number of samples and sampling sites used, the EPA stated that “it is not possible to extend the results beyond the four study sites or to reach any more comprehensive conclusions.”
  
• Both the EPA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, however, recommend and promote rubber mulch.
  
• The EPA has worked with industry representatives and state officials to increase the use of tire mulch in playgrounds, and the CPSC recommends mulch in the "Bible" it provides to playground planners across the country.
  
• While the EPA has helped coordinate efforts to recycle tires and move crumb rubber onto playgrounds and fields, it has not coordinated efforts to study the material nor does it have any plans to as it considers this a “state and local issue”.
  Chemicals in the Tires:
  

• Tires are composed of chemicals including: benzene, mercury, styrene- butadiene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and arsenic, among several other chemicals, heavy metals and carcinogens, have been found in tires. (EPA)
  
• Industry representatives and manufacturers say that crumb rubber is safe for children to play on because the manufacturing process binds the various components of tire, including carbon black and solvents, into a "matrix" that makes it impossible for them to leach out.
  
• "Most people look at the raw materials going into tires and say, 'This is a suspected causer of cancer, this could be an endocrine disrupter, but after the manufacturing process, none of the raw materials that go into a tire are available." (Michael Blumenthal, former vice president of the Rubber Manufacturers Association and now an independent consultant for the industry)
  
• Studies have found that crumb rubber can emit gases that can be inhaled. When the material gets hot, it can increase the chances that volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, and chemicals can "off-gas," or leach into the air.
  

• An organization of 10 people in Connecticut called Environment and Human Health, Inc. (EHHI) publicizes the carcinogenic risks of rubber mulch based on some small studies they commissioned by a lab in Connecticut.
Children and Chemical Exposure:

• Young children are at greater risk to chemical exposure because their organs, muscles and nervous systems are still developing.
  
• Behavioral traits unique to children, like putting things in their mouths, increase their risk of exposure. They breathe, eat and drink more relative to their body weight than adults. They also have many more years of life in which to develop disease triggered by early exposure to a carcinogen.
  
• "Children go to playgrounds almost daily, and gifted athletes are on the soccer field almost every day. That sort of cumulative exposure results in a buildup in their body of these toxic chemicals, and can result in a buildup of cellular damage that's caused by these chemicals, that can then result in disease years or decades later." (Dr. Philip Landrigan, dean of global health at New York's Mt. Sinai Hospital and a top expert on the effect of chemicals on children)
  
• "My concern as a pediatrician when somebody says that the levels are low is to ask the counter-question, 'What's low for a child?' I think for little children who play right down with their faces on the ground, who pick up stuff and put it in their mouths, who get crumb rubber on their skin in ways that adults would almost never get it on their skin, that any level of exposure to a known human carcinogen is too much." (Dr. Philip Landrigan)
  Artificial Turf:
  

• Most of the fields are made of crumb rubber, which became popular a dozen years ago. Called styrene butadiene rubber, or “crumb rubber,” the turf contains tiny black crumbs made from pulverized car tires, poured in between the fake grass blades. The rubber infill gave the field more bounce than previous synthetic surfaces, cushioned the impact for athletes, and helped prevent serious injuries like concussions.
  
• Seattle soccer coach Amy Griffin has compiled a list of 38 American soccer players -- 34 of them goalies - who have been diagnosed with cancer. At least a dozen played in Washington, but the geographic spread
  

is nationwide. Blood cancers like lymphoma and leukemia dominate the list.

• Griffin collected names through personal experience with sick players, and acknowledges that her list is not a scientific data set. But it's enough to make her ask whether crumb rubber artificial turf, a product that has been rolled out in tens of thousands of parks, playgrounds, schools and stadiums in the U.S., is safe for the athletes and kids who play on it.
  
• The Synthetic Turf Council, an industry group, says that the evidence collected so far by scientists and state and federal agencies proves that artificial turf is safe. "We've got 14 studies on our website that says we can find no negative health effects. While those studies aren't absolutely conclusive, there's certainly a preponderance of evidence to this point that says, in fact, it is safe." (Dr. Davis Lee, a Turf Council board member)
  
• Schools and local governments liked the benefits of the fields. Rubber infill doesn’t require pesticides or herbicides to maintain, they don’t need water to live, and they can withstand heavy use year-round. They also provide a means to recycle millions of discarded tires.
  EISD Schools:
  Use artificial turf (which has the small pellets of rubber mulch), also wood chips or pea gravel.
  Resources:
  NBC News article on rubber mulch: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/rubber-mulch-safe-surface-your- childs-playground-n258586
  NBC News article on artificial turf: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/how-safe-artificial-turf-your-child- plays-n220166
  about Seattle soccer coach Amy Griffin and goal keepers
  http://www.ehhi.org/reports/turf/
  http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2013/08/01/move-to-make-synthetic- playgrounds-lead-free/
  http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2013/03/21/feds-should-drop-synthetic- turf-safety-assurances/
  http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2009/06/04/safety-of-shredded-tires-in- playgrounds-under-question/
  

http://center4research.org/child-teen-health/early-childhood- development/caution-children-at-play-on-potentially-toxic-surfaces/
https://achildgrows.com/blog/2008/08/toxic-playgrounds-rubber-mats-again/ Facebook page "Ban Rubber Mulch"