Saving Goals could lead to Severe Health Issues
// VF File Photo by Christa Vandenburgh
According to Soccer Wire, approximately 12,000 fields and playgrounds are made from recycled tire crumb in the United States. That crumb rubber may be causing cancer or other health related problems in athletes. Crumb rubber is made out of tiny pieces of recycled car tires that have toxins and chemicals in it that are raising concern.
Crumb rubber emerged when there was a need to recycle the hazardous waste that was produced by used car tires dating back to the 1960s. It has been used on fields since the 1990s, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
The crumb rubber is used for cushion and to fill the gaps between synthetic blades of grass to produce artificial turf.
The Possibility of Cancer
Soccer players are the main focus of concern because soccer is the most commonly played on crumb rubber turf.
Soccer Wire reported that the University of Washington women’s goalkeeper coach, Amy Griffin, noticed many athletes getting leukemia and other forms of cancer. Griffin was the first one to notice the correlation between soccer players and cancer and was able to bring her observation to the public.
As of November 2015, Griffin made a list of 187 people who have or had a form of cancer with 150 of them being soccer players. Soccer Wire reported of the 150 soccer players, 63 percent of them are goalkeepers who have to jump, dive and lunge into the turf more than other players.
There is little information to build on what Griffin has concluded on her own and no scientific proof to back it up, but she told NBC News that she would continue to look for an answer on why so many athletes are getting cancer.
One study published in 2013 by Cardno ChemRisk, a scientific consulting firm, showed that the air above artificial turf doesn’t present a health risk for cancer because all of the chemicals were below the level of hazards. Many studies need to be conducted in order for there to be enough factual information though.
// VF File Photo by Christa Vandenburgh
What’s the Government Doing?
The concerns regarding crumb rubber turf were first reported in Oct. 2014 by NBC News, and now it’s being studied by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
“If the government puts together a task force to look into it, it means there has been a concern placed by the public in the United States,” Adriana LaGier, assistant professor of biology at Grand View, said.
The EPA and other government agencies have taken the initiative to put together a task force to answer some key questions that have been brought to their attention by the public.
In October 2015, Congress asked the EPA to answer questions about the concerns raised from the use of crumb rubber on fields around the country. Questions were asked such as “Do chemical substances in crumb rubber present a hazard to human health?”
Congress decided to push the issue with the EPA when the administrator, Gina McCarthy, didn’t answer a direct on-camera question about the safety of crumb rubber, according to NBC News.
The EPA is currently undergoing research and has to release a report of the findings by the end of 2016. Besides looking at whether crumb rubber causes cancer, there is research being done on the chemicals themselves and the bacteria in artificial turf.
Chemicals in Turf
Crumb rubber turf contains 12 known chemicals. The International Agency for Cancer Research named arsenic, benzene, cadmium and nickel as hazardous chemicals that are in the ground-up tires. All of these chemicals are considered safe in low exposure levels though.
People can be exposed by ingesting the carcinogens or by breathing in particles of the crumb rubber, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation.
The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery agency looked at the potential chemicals that can be released by crumb rubber. The researchers concluded that the air above artificial turf fields had levels of carcinogens that were too low to cause problems to a person’s health.
Skin Infections Caused by Artificial Turf
The potential site of bacterial growth and transmission in people who use the fields was also looked at in the study Safety Study of Artificial Turf Containing Crumb Rubber Infill Made From Recycled Tires.
When looking at the scrapes on athletes who play on artificial turf compared to those who use a natural grass field, there was a tendency to have more scrapes that lead to skin infection on those athletes who played on artificial turf.
The study looked at five artificial turf fields and two natural turf fields in the San Francisco Bay Area to try and compare the bacteria that can cause infections in people.
The data gathered showed that fields with artificial turf on them produced less bacteria than those with natural turf. Colony-forming units is a measurement that is used to estimate the individual amount of bacteria produced. The artificial turf had 0 to 53,000 CFUs per gram of material. Natural turf had between 637,000 and 305 million CFUs measured.
// VF File Photo by Christa Vandenburgh
What Do Players Think?
Grand View soccer is mainly played on natural grass, but football is mainly played on artificial turf.
Robert Secrets, junior wide receiver, has played on turf since he was in eighth grade and said he decided he would need the government to do more studies before he made a decision on how safe or unsafe the turf is.
“Parents should be concerned and definitely look into it and see the research,” Secrets said.
Although this topic is not widely known many players do agree it is a reason to be concerned.
Rylee Willett, junior linebacker, said, “I think they need to do a lot more research because now a days kids are starting on the turf, and it could be worse for them if it is a true thing.”
Both Secrets and Willett agreed that they get more burns by playing on turf rather then natural grass, which might be a cause for concern in athletes.
Conclusion
Sifting through the few studies that have some information on crumb rubber turf and the issues it might cause in people can be confusing and difficult to understand. The government is slowly trying to conduct research on the issue at hand for many athletes.
Should athletes continue to play on crumb rubber turf when it might be causing harm to athletes and others who use the turf regularly?
Until there are conclusive studies out on whether rubber can cause cancer these questions remain unanswered.
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