Playground equipment-Urge end to use of tire mulch on playgrounds
Playground equipment-Urge end to use of tire mulch on playgrounds
As schools and town officials build or improve playgrounds for toddlers, rubber mulch created from tires has become a product of choice by some because it is soft and affordable.
That needs to change.
"Tires are so full of toxic chemicals they have to be disposed of in a special landfill," Grassroots Environmental Education's Doug Wood, of New York, said in a story. "So why would you grind them up and put them on a field where kids are going to play?"
Synthetic turf fields for older children that use tire rubber have been growing despite health concerns, but its use for toddlers' playgrounds seems unconscionable. Children with light body weights are more vulnerable to the negative effects of the materials.
The Environmental Protection Agency released a limited study on the product in 2009, which found it safe. While the agency has backed off endorsing the product as healthy, it has no plans to do further research.
The New Haven-based organization Environment and Human Health Inc. wants the EPA to do more research on the product.
"Environment and Human Health Inc. feels it is very important that it (EPA) continue to pursue the issue of toxic ground-up rubber tires being placed in toddlers playgrounds," Nancy Alderman, president of the organization, wrote to the EPA in a recent email. "It must stop."
EHHI, which has been pushing for a moratorium on the use of the rubber products until more study is done, did its own research on the rubber tire mulch.
In one set of experiments, the organization tested the chemicals released from the tire crumbs used for playground "in-fill" and commercial rubber mulch. Ten metals were leached from the samples of tire crumbs and tire mulch in the first experiment.
In the second experiment, 25 chemical species were identified, with 72 percent to 99 percent certainty in the mass spectrometry and gas chromatography analysis. Nineteen chemicals were identified with more than 90 percent certainty and five with more than 98 percent certainty.
Arguments against the product continue.
Linda Chalker-Scott, extension horticulturist and associate professor of the Puyallup Research and Extension Center at Washington State University, has researched the use of rubber in landscapes.
In her report, she wrote that the EPA said the country generates 290 million scrap tires annually. Because the tires are slow to decompose, it makes the need for innovative uses for them more compelling, she said.
But based on her research, she concluded that "rubber mulch is not as effective as other organic mulch choices in controlling weeds; that it is highly flammable and difficult to extinguish once it is burning; it decomposes; and that it contains a number of metal and organic contaminants with known environmental and/or human health effects."
Chalker-Scott cites research done at Bucknell University, which determined rubber leachate from car tires can kill entire aquatic communities of algae, zooplankton, snails and fish and at lower concentrations; the leachates cause reproductive problems and precancerous lesions in those organisms.
She reports that a similar study exploring the use of tires as artificial reef substrates found rubber leachate to negatively affect the survival of various seaweeds and phytoplankton.
The greatest threat of contamination appears to be to freshwater habitats.
Part of the toxic nature of rubber leachate is due to its mineral content: aluminum, cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, sulfur and zinc have been identified in the laboratory and in the field.
The Bucknell research found that some of these rubber leachates, in high enough concentrations, are known to be harmful to human health; effects of exposure range from skin and eye irritation to major organ damage and even death.
In addition, long-term exposure could lead to neurological damage, cancer and mutations, she reported.
This clearly is a case where parents must protect their children until the country's regulating authorities address the issue.
As schools and town officials build or improve playgrounds for toddlers, rubber mulch created from tires has become a product of choice by some because it is soft and affordable.
That needs to change.
"Tires are so full of toxic chemicals they have to be disposed of in a special landfill," Grassroots Environmental Education's Doug Wood, of New York, said in a story. "So why would you grind them up and put them on a field where kids are going to play?"
Synthetic turf fields for older children that use tire rubber have been growing despite health concerns, but its use for toddlers' playgrounds seems unconscionable. Children with light body weights are more vulnerable to the negative effects of the materials.
The Environmental Protection Agency released a limited study on the product in 2009, which found it safe. While the agency has backed off endorsing the product as healthy, it has no plans to do further research.
The New Haven-based organization Environment and Human Health Inc. wants the EPA to do more research on the product.
"Environment and Human Health Inc. feels it is very important that it (EPA) continue to pursue the issue of toxic ground-up rubber tires being placed in toddlers playgrounds," Nancy Alderman, president of the organization, wrote to the EPA in a recent email. "It must stop."
EHHI, which has been pushing for a moratorium on the use of the rubber products until more study is done, did its own research on the rubber tire mulch.
In one set of experiments, the organization tested the chemicals released from the tire crumbs used for playground "in-fill" and commercial rubber mulch. Ten metals were leached from the samples of tire crumbs and tire mulch in the first experiment.
In the second experiment, 25 chemical species were identified, with 72 percent to 99 percent certainty in the mass spectrometry and gas chromatography analysis. Nineteen chemicals were identified with more than 90 percent certainty and five with more than 98 percent certainty.
Arguments against the product continue.
Linda Chalker-Scott, extension horticulturist and associate professor of the Puyallup Research and Extension Center at Washington State University, has researched the use of rubber in landscapes.
In her report, she wrote that the EPA said the country generates 290 million scrap tires annually. Because the tires are slow to decompose, it makes the need for innovative uses for them more compelling, she said.
But based on her research, she concluded that "rubber mulch is not as effective as other organic mulch choices in controlling weeds; that it is highly flammable and difficult to extinguish once it is burning; it decomposes; and that it contains a number of metal and organic contaminants with known environmental and/or human health effects."
Chalker-Scott cites research done at Bucknell University, which determined rubber leachate from car tires can kill entire aquatic communities of algae, zooplankton, snails and fish and at lower concentrations; the leachates cause reproductive problems and precancerous lesions in those organisms.
She reports that a similar study exploring the use of tires as artificial reef substrates found rubber leachate to negatively affect the survival of various seaweeds and phytoplankton.
The greatest threat of contamination appears to be to freshwater habitats.
Part of the toxic nature of rubber leachate is due to its mineral content: aluminum, cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, sulfur and zinc have been identified in the laboratory and in the field.
The Bucknell research found that some of these rubber leachates, in high enough concentrations, are known to be harmful to human health; effects of exposure range from skin and eye irritation to major organ damage and even death.
In addition, long-term exposure could lead to neurological damage, cancer and mutations, she reported.
This clearly is a case where parents must protect their children until the country's regulating authorities address the issue.
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