Recycled tyre-turfs and fields come under heat in the US
A US senator, Jerry Hill, has introduced a bill banning new artificial turf fields made with recycled tyres in California, prompted by increasing concerns that the materials may be linked to serious illnesses in children. Meanwhile, the state is conducting a study to determine possible health risks.
“The Los Angeles Unified School District and city of New York have already implemented complete bans; this is just a temporary moratorium until a thorough analysis can be conducted,” Hill said in introducing Senate Bill 47, The Children’s Safe Playground and Turf Field Act of 2015. Concerns have mounted about chemical compounds contained in recycled rubber tyres as an increasing number of young athletes have developed leukaemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and testicular, prostate and other forms of cancer. Hill’s bill would require the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, in consultation with the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, the Department of Public Health, and the Department of Toxic Substances Control, to conduct a study to be completed by July 1, 2017, into possible health risks posed by these artificial fields.
SB 47 would prohibit a public or private school or local government until Jan. 1, 2018, from installing, or contracting for the installation of a new field or playground surface made from synthetic turf containing crumb rubber from used tyres in public or private schools or public parks. The temporary moratorium would not affect the installation of fields already underway and also turf fields and playground surfaces containing alternative materials made without used tyres.
The Federal Environmental Protection Agency has deferred such studies and regulation to states. In California, the Legislature commissioned a 2010 study that looked, specifically, at whether these fields release significant amounts of volatile organic compounds that are harmful to humans and if they increase the risk of serious skin infections. Hill’s legislation calls for a more comprehensive study, including the cumulative impacts on human health from various chemicals found in tyres that might also be present in turf fields and playgrounds made with crumb rubber.
The study will also look at alternatives to crumb rubber from used tyres such as coconut fibres, rice husks, cork and used shoes. Money for the study would come from the California Tire Recycling Management Fund, which requires individuals who purchase a new tyre to pay a state fee for programmes related to disposal of used tyres.
Category: Features, Health alert
