Artificial Turf Crumb Rubber Cancer

A new artificial turf system was developed in the early 2000s based on crumb rubber the black crumbs are small pieces of styrene butadiene rubber made from grinding up old vehicle tires.

Artificial turf crumb rubber cancer.

Crumb rubber infill is estimated to be about 90 of the weight of fields thus forming the vast majority of the playing surface. The debate over crumb rubber and cancer the recently installed artificial turf at ucla s intramural field will save the westwood campus 6 5 million gallons of water annually. Developed in the late 1990s crumb rubber turf was considered a vast improvement over the 1960s surface known as astroturf which amounted to a carpet of short fake grass laid over a pad and asphalt base. It hasn t been scientifically proven that athletes exposed to crumb rubber have higher rates of cancer than the general population and the synthetic turf industry insists its product is safe.

Part 2 to be released later will include data to characterize potential human exposures to the chemicals found in the tire crumb rubber material while using synthetic turf fields. Most synthetic turf fields have crumb rubber interspersed among the simulated grass fibers to reduce athletic injuries by allowing users to turn and slide more readily as they play sports or exercise on the fields. After a list of soccer players with cancer prompted an investigation the state found nothing unusual but one coach still thinks the cancer might be linked to artificial turf. Research shows that crumb rubber pellets made of recycled tires can contain toxic chemicals metals and carcinogens but not necessarily at levels.

Part 1 communicates the research objectives methods results and findings for the tire crumb rubber characterization research i e what is in the material. Artificial turf is surface of synthetic fibers resembling natural grass. Unlike its predecessor crumb rubber turf was a synthetic carpet of longer grassy looking fibers filled in with ground up scrap tires. In 2006 a norwegian study evaluated the dangers of using styrene butadiene rubber rubber crumb in the composition of artificial turf.

Recently the crumbs have been implicated in causing cancer in adolescents and young. It is widely used for sports fields for being more hard wearing and resistant than natural surfaces. The tire crumbs are poured in between the artificial grass blades giving the artificial fields more cushion and support.