Another one from technology’s unintended consequences file:
Given that the substance underlying today’s highly engineered synthetic turf fields is known as “tire crumbs,” one can be forgiven for leaping to the erroneous conclusion that the health issue in play here is that a fat football player might actually eat the stuff.
That’s not it, although I suppose the possibility cannot be dismissed.
The issue is whether these rubber bits — they’re also found on playgrounds — emit noxious fumes that can cause irritations, make people sick … or worse. Researchers at Environment and Human Health Inc. in New Haven, Conn., say they have reason to believe that additional real-world studies are needed based upon their work conducted under laboratory conditions.
“What we feel this work suggests is additional studies need to be done at actual installed fields,” Mary Jane Mattina, the study’s lead author, tells Associated Press . “There are a lot of these fields being installed and the answers to these questions aren’t out there.”
The full report, which you can read here, includes a rather scary list of health concerns that the authors believe could result from exposure to tire crumbs: severe irritation of the respiratory system; severe irritation of the eyes, skin and mucous membranes; systemic effects on the liver and kidneys; neurotoxic responses; allergic reactions; cancers; and developmental effects.
The issue has been raised in other countries, too, according to David Brown, a public health toxicologist who is involved in the research and authored this opinion column on the subject:
Both Norway and Sweden have recommended that there be no further construction of fields with rubber tire crumbs. Norway’s concern is that some people are allergic to latex and latex is a component of the ground-up tires. Sweden considers the rubber crumbs to be a hazardous substance.
People are asked by the synthetic turf manufacturers to assume that the amount of exposures from the rubber crumbs — as well as exposures from the rubber crumb dust — are insufficient to produce any health effect, irrespective of the age of the child, the number of hours, days or years that a person plays on these fields. Those who promote its safety provide no measurements to support the industry’s assumption.
Ah, but there are reassuring voices out there telling athletes and those who provide their playing surfaces that there is actually nothing to worry about.
Rick Doyle, president of the Synthetic Turf Council, an industry group based in Atlanta, cited various studies, including one by FIFA, the international governing body for soccer, that have not found harmful health effects from the fields.
The fact that there is a Synthetic Turf Council tells me something here.
Connecticut’s attorney general wants the state to spend $200,000 on additional research into the matter.
Seems like it would be money well spent.
