Abstract
In China, incidences involving pupils suffering health problems caused by synthetic running tracks have attracted the public’s attention. However, the existence of known and unknown harmful chemicals in the tracks have not yet been explored. Here, the levels of 16 known harmful ingredients were firstly analyzed in 167 school running tracks. In all samples, the recognized toxic solvents and additives, such as the benzene series, soluble mercury, 3,3′-dichloro-4,4′-diaminodiphenylmethane (MOCA) and toluene diisocyanate monomer (TDI) were under the limits of detection. In contrast, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), phthalates, Short chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) soluble lead, cadmium and chromium were found in 86%, 88%, 46%, 81%, 43% and 83% of the specimens, respectively. The levels, toxicology and distribution of these known chemicals were evaluated. Then, a static-headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) method in full scan mode was employed to screen for unknown volatile chemicals. Three groups of chemicals reflecting different kinds of pollution sources were discovered: new solvents, such as N, N-Dimethylformamide, new additives, such as 2-ethylhexanoic acid, and by-products, such as carbon disulfide. In summary, the existence of potential risk factors in school plastic tracks was revealed through exhaustive testing. Moreover, most of the hazardous components detected have been recently included in a new national standard to improve the safety performance of synthetic running tracks.
Highlights
Before the outbreak of the “poisonous running track” cases, the quality control of running tracks in China was extremely weak
The levels of benzene, toluene, xylenes, toluene diisocyanate monomer (TDI), Hg and MOCA were all lower than the limits of detection (LODs) of the corresponding methods
The volatile compounds, phthalates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), Pb, Cr, Cd and Short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) were determined in 43% to 100% of all samples
Summary
Before the outbreak of the “poisonous running track” cases, the quality control of running tracks in China was extremely weak. Www.nature.com/scientificreports other potentially harmful components are not included This lack of inclusion partially explains why most of the plastic running tracks caused damage to pupils’ health but still passed the national quality standards. Based on the material and production process, the running tracks in China can be divided into the following 2 types: water-permeable and waterproof (including in situ cast and prefabricated). After a query of existing refs.[9,10,11], we determined a panel of possible harmful substances in plastic running tracks. These components include volatiles from solvents and monomers, semi-volatiles from filler oils and by-products, plasticizers, and soluble heavy metals from catalysts. There were a large amount of reports on the studies of detection and analysis technique for VOCs in tropical waste, schools, museum construction, and so on[20,21,22]
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