Soccer stars question safety of tire crumb on artificial turf fields

ATLANTA — Federal officials are now urging further testing to determine the safety of chopped-up recycled tires that are often used to provide padding for children’s playgrounds and are used in artificial turf fields across metro Atlanta.

For the last two months, Channel 2 Action News documented the material, commonly referred to as “tire crumb” or “crumb rubber,” being used in dozens of artificial turf fields and playgrounds throughout the region.

For example, all 16 Cobb County high schools have synthetic turf football fields, which include crumb rubber, according to Angela Huff with Cobb County Schools.

Since  2009, a nationwide coalition of players and advocates from environmental nonprofits, have urged several federal agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to conduct further testing to determine the safety of tire crumb.

Most of the country’s artificial turf is manufactured in plants located in Dalton, Ga.

Industry officials in Georgia presented nearly 60 research studies from universities and state governments, which they say prove the product’s safety.

“The preponderance of evidence shows no negative health effects associated with crumb rubber in synthetic turf,” according to a statement by the Atlanta-based Synthetic Turf Council, the industry’s association group.

But questions remain, even among federal officials, who are no longer willing to draw comprehensive conclusions about the material’s safety for humans.

“I just don't think that people, humans, kids, should be used as the test ground to figure out whether this stuff is healthy or not,” said Ethan Zohn, a former professional soccer goalkeeper.

Zohn, who later developed lymphoma, teamed up with Amy Griffin, an assistant soccer coach at the University of Washington in Seattle to urge for more safety testing.

Together, they began to notice a strange pattern among goalkeepers, who spend hours every day, diving within inches of the tire crumb.

“Two goalkeepers that grew up in our area, they both came down with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” Griffin said.

Zohn and Griffin began collecting a nationwide list of soccer players affected by cancer.

“When we combined our lists, I think we are up to about 52 soccer players that have blood cancer, and of those 52, 46 of them are goalkeepers,” Zohn said.

“These tires carry about 30 chemicals of concern, including  arsenic, benzene, mercury, and  lead, all of which are associated with negative human impacts,” said Jeff Ruch, the executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C.

His organization started investigating crumb rubber after a whistleblower with the EPA came to them with concerns.

“It has been elevated to the highest levels of the agency, where it stopped,” Ruch said.

In an EPA study from 2009, researchers found “low levels of concern” in a study monitoring synthetic turf fields and playgrounds. But after pressure from outside groups like PEER, the EPA updated their press release on the web to emphasize, "given the very limited nature of this study … it is not possible to extend the results beyond the four study sites."

“Since nobody has any standards for it, what mixture is in your neighborhood is completely unknown, there is nothing that regulates,” Ruch said.

Ruch said that the EPA testing was flawed, because not enough fields were tested to draw an accurate conclusion.

In a 2008 report by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which is part of the CDC, the agency recommended the City of Newark, New Jersey close a synthetic turf field after researchers found elevated levels of lead based on a review of dust samples collected from the field.

“The potential for exposure to area residents, mainly children under 7 years old, the recreational use of the athletic field represents a Public Health Hazard,” according to the report.

It is unknown how many are fields have been shuttered because of similar concerns.

“Given our very limited review (i.e., limited number of components monitored, samples sites, and samples taken at each site) and the wide diversity of tire crumb material, it is not possible to reach a comprehensive conclusion without the consideration of additional data. The agency believes that more testing needs to be done, but the decision to use tire crumb remains a state and local decision,” said Laura Allen, a press secretary for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in an emailed statement to Channel 2 Action News.

“I want to prove this turf is completely safe and that we can put it on top of our ice cream and eat it but right now we don't know that. There is a lot of chemicals and a lot of people being exposed,” Zohn said.

• Synthetic Turf Council response
• EPA tire crumb study
• Agency for Toxic Substances study

WSBTV