In light of crumb rubber safety concern raised by an NBC report from Brian Williams, the Connecticut Department of Public Health has restated their stance on synthetic turf safety, that outdoor artificial turf fields do not represent an elevated health risk.
In a letter, the State of Connecticut Department of Public Health writes:
“Our risk assessment did cover carcinogens that are known to be in recycled tires and the crumb rubber used to cushion fields. Once again, we found there to be very little exposure of any substances, carcinogenic or not, in the vapors and dust that
these fields generate under active use, summer conditions. Background levels of chemicals in urban and suburban air from heating sources and automobile traffic are much more significant sources of airborne carcinogens. The fact that we sampled 5 fields (4 outdoor and 1 indoor) of different ages and composition suggests that the results can be generalized to other fields, a conclusion supported by the fact that results were similar to what was found in California, USEPA and European studies.
Thus, the CT DPH position expressed in 2011 at the conclusion of the Connecticut study, that outdoor artificial turf fields do not represent an elevated health risk, remains unchanged.”
View the full Connecticut Department of Public Health Letter which details the Department’s position on artificial turf and crumb rubber.
About the Connecticut artificial turf study:
The Connecticut Department of Public Health evaluated the potential exposures and risks from use of artificial turf fields. The study of fields in Connecticut in 2010-2011 was a comprehensive investigation of releases from the fields during active play. The study did not find a large amount of vapor or particle release from the fields confirming prior reports from Europe and the US. The study further put these exposures into a public health context by performing a risk assessment, which did not find elevated cancer risk. These results have been published as a set of three articles in a peer review journal and are available on the DPH artificial turf webpage.
Shelby Becker is a creative content creator and marketing specialist at Act Global. She’s an animal rights activist, avid concert-goer, and scary movie enthusiast. Follow her on LinkedIn .
For more information, contact marketing at sbecker@actglobal.com