Abstract
Millions of adults, children and teenagers use artificial sports pitches and playgrounds globally. Pitches are artificial grass and bases may be made up of crumb rubber from recycled tires or new rubber and sand. Player injury on pitches was a major concern. Now, debates about health focus on possible exposure and uptake of chemicals within pitch and base materials. Research has looked at potential risks to users from hazardous substances such as metals, volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons including benzo (a) (e) pyrenes and phthalates: some are carcinogens and others may be endocrine disruptors and have developmental reproductive effects. Small environmental monitoring and modelling studies, often with significant data gaps about exposure, range of substances monitored, occupational exposures, types of surfaces monitored and study length across seasons, indicated little risk to sports people and children but some risk to installation workers. A few, again often small, studies indicated potentially harmful human effects relating to skin, respiration and cancers. Only one widely cited biomonitoring study has been done and no rigorous cancer epidemiological studies exist. Unravelling exposures and uptake over decades may prove complex. European regulators have strengthened controls over crumb rubber chemicals, set different standards for toys and crumb rubber pitches. Bigger US studies now underway attempting to fill some of the data gaps will report between 2017 and 2019. Public health professionals in the meantime may draw on established principles to support greater caution in setting crumb rubber exposure limits and controls.
Highlights
Artificial surfaces and turf, sometimes called “synthetic” surfaces, first appeared on a major professional sporting pitch as an “innovative” substitute for natural grass in the USA in 1966 and in Europe in the 1980s
Crumb rubber from tires may contain for example various metals such as cadmium, chromium, zinc, aluminium and lead; oils containing various chemicals including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) such as benzo pyrenes, benzo (a) anthracene as well as phthalates
In Italy, a study of 13 artificial pitches based on crumb rubber was conducted and air sample analyses for 25 metals and nine PAHs as well as other chemicals were collected
Summary
Artificial surfaces and turf, sometimes called “synthetic” surfaces, first appeared on a major professional sporting pitch as an “innovative” substitute for natural grass in the USA in 1966 and in Europe in the 1980s. Toxicology too has moved on since the installation of the first pitches with evidence emerging for example about very low level chemical exposures to endocrine disruptors, sometimes present in and around artificial surfaces and their potential adverse effects How such gaps are interpreted and how existing research findings are weighted and used is debated primarily between environmental groups, parent groups, pitch and playground purchasers and the manufacturing and supply industry. Advisor and argue society and regulators should look for evidence of a lack of serious risks to health when large and sometimes vulnerable populations, at critical points in their growth or development, may be exposed to processes and substances before introducing or continuing with new technologies and materials This is especially so if the public health benefits may be small or can be provided by alternative less hazardous materials or processes and the data gaps are significant
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