The Latest on Using Recycled Tires for Play Areas

Driving to work today I heard a radio news story from ABC Radio News on one of the local radio stations regarding on going concerns about the use of recycled tires on synthetic playing fields. In the following story concerns are raised about the ingestion and inhalation of rubber dust on synthetic fields which use crushed rubber.

Synthetic Turf Fields Kicking up Safety Concerns

Looking this story up, also led to finding the following archived news story I had heard about last summer, also on ABC Radio News.

Hot Park Equipment No Child's Play

I have to admit, while I was keenly aware of the risks associated with inhaling rubber dust, and had considered the fumes that might be generated by hot rubber surfaces, I had never thought about just how how these surfaces could get.

Just to wrap it up, here is one more ABC News story on Latex. Read the comments, they are eye opening.

Latex Lurks in Unexpected Places

Latex, A Response

Usually I would not clear an anonymous comment, however, for the sake of better exploring the issues with latex I posted a comment made to my previous discussion. I did this more to address the issues, some of which I have seen in a number of sources, about the supposed issue of latex and tires. The basic comment about children playing on tire swings for a century with no problem is a significant position of the latex industry.

The fact is, yes children have been playing on tire swings for a century. Has there not been any problems? Far from certain. Latex allergies have only been recognized for a very short time. Exposure issues quite likely have been around since we first started using latex, people just did not know what to ascribe the problems to. I would suggest that it is entirely too late to ask anyone who ever had a rash after playing on a tire swing to get tested for sensitivity to the latex protein.

It is also generally agreed that the vuclanized version of latex in a tire is more stable than the latex used in gloves or swim caps. However, there is significant documentation that as tires wear, and after tires are de-vulcanized (frozen to extreme temperatures so that they can easily be crushed to remove the steel lining) that the latex protein is released.

The following data sources provide significant information that essentially supports a more cautious approach than the scraptires site or the author of the comment:

A Case Study of Tire Crumb Use on Playgrounds: Risk Analysis and
Communication When Major Clinical Knowledge Gaps Exist

A couple key passages:

Regarding our central question of potential harm to children, the published literature
contained some information about the product, including an in vitro toxicity
model, but traditional published resources and a network of environmental health
experts could not establish the product’s safety in use with children. (Gapin Children Research page 1)

Risks may exist in working with the product, but the question regarding hazards posed tochildren playing on the amended playgrounds is left unanswered. (Gapin Children Research page 3)

Impacts of Tire Debris

The interaction between inhaled particles and lung cells is described in literature [66,67], as well as the correlation between tire particles and the release of latex allergy proteins [23,68].

In this study the latex protein extracted from car tires is nearly as high as the latex protein found in latex gloves, the study notes that it had expected the vulcanization process to destroy natural latex proteins, the authors found it notable that the presence of latex allergens in tire tread was confirmed across several different tests.

The commentor also noted:

There are hundreds of millions of tires in use on motor vehicles today. These tires wear off particles of rubber into our environment during their normal use with no known long term health hazard. Once removed from service, their composition does not change. If they are made up of materials that are hazardous to any portion of the population then we need to stop their production, unless there is no significant hazard here.

The following comments will illustrate that, in fact, there is a known problem.

Latex Allergens in Tire Dust and Airborne Particles

In conclusion, the latex allergens or latex cross-reactive material present in sedimented and airborne particulate material, derived from tire debris, and generated by heavy urban vehicle traffic could be important factors in producing latex allergy and asthma symptoms associated with air pollution particles.

As tires wear out, rubber is presumably deposited on the road
surface. Where is all that rubber?

All over the place, bud--including maybe in your lungs. For a long time conventional wisdom had it that tire particles were too coarse to do much harm and simply wound up as one more component of urban grit. Now we know better. Asthma and latex allergies have been on the rise in recent years, and some think tire dust is why.

Fine rubber particles, whether latex or synthetic, can lodge in your lungs and even enter your bloodstream. The Environmental Protection Agency has a whole category designated for such problematic particles: PM2.5, or particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in size. Excessive exposure can lead to reduced lung capacity, bronchitis, asthma, accelerated heart disease, and death. One study claims that nearly 60 percent of airborne tire particles are small enough to be easily inhaled.

Paving, Asphalt, Tires and Latex Allergies:
What is the Relationship?

If you are a latex allergy victim and you experience any type of reaction around streets that are being paved, or asphalt that is being added to roof structures, there is a very good reason. Asphalt, when combined with ground up tires in the paving process, contains natural rubber.

A study of blood samples from asthmatics and healthy persons from the Los Angeles area showed a high correlation in the increased incidence of latex allergen antibodies in asthmatics. Victims of latex protein hypersensitivity should avoid areas that are being paved or roofed when asphalt is being used. The airborne particles of natural latex proteins emitted in these processes are known to cause reactions in latex allergic individuals.

This particular study explores the impact of heat on latex. It is commonly thought that the vulcanization process will reduce the latex protein in tires. However, as the Groce article in the Latex from Tires notes, the heating process of rubber tires when included in asphalt releases the latex protein into the air. Why is this important in the framework of the poured rubber surface and rubber tiles surfaces at the playgrounds? From what we have found is that these surfaces use devulcanized rubber, devulcanization is a process to breakdown the binding aspects of vulcanized rubber to extract the natural latex rubber from the hardened tire. The devulcanized rubber appears to free the latex protein that may have been bound up in the hardening of the vulcanization process.

Latex Allergy in 2004
What’s Known, What’s Now, What’s Next

There is not yet good research about many aspects of preventing or managing latex allergy. For example, the use of recycled tires for surfacing playgrounds and athletic tracks is controversial. Given the current knowledge about latex allergy, we recommend that:

• In the general healthcare environment, non-latex or low-allergen unpowdered gloves should be the standard. This will reduce future sensitization.

• All individuals with spina bifida and related conditions should have a latex-safe environment from birth. This means in hospital, at clinics, in school and camp and in the community at large, including restaurants and shopping malls.


While this is a report provided for patients with Spina Bifida, the recommendations hold true for any latex allergic person.

So, back to the rubber industry quote “after all children have been swinging on tires for a century…” as a means of supporting the use of tires in playgrounds. Personally we recognized a problem on the Wing School Playground over two years ago when our son experienced hives when playing on the equipment. The contact hives were determined to generate from the black rubber bridge that was on the playground. This bridge was one element removed on the playground to make the area safer for latex allergic children. Of course, the starting point is recognizing the existence of a latex allergy in a child. Without that, connections are not made. A child could go into shock due to a latex allergy, and if that child is not known to be one of the between 2% and 8% of the general population considered to be allergic to latex the connection will not be made (Looking out for Latex).

So, anyway, yes tires can be landfilled in some states. Many, if not most landfills discourage such disposal of tires as they do not decompose (even though a properly sealed landfill will never decompose any of the buried material). I am far more familiar with the tire piles that have led to major pollution problems - especially when they have caught on fire:



Problems associated with landfilling of scrap tires Landfilling of scrap tires causes serious environmental pollution and health problems. Of the 283 million scrap tires generated in the United States in 2003, nearly one-fourth wound up in landfills. This is in addition to more than 300 million tires already stockpiled across the country. The estimated cost of cleaning up the existing tire stockpiles in the United States is in the range of $800 million to $1 billion. The most obvious hazard with the stockpiling of scrap tires is the potential for large uncontrolled fires. Scrap tires are petroleum-rich products, and as tires burn, they release particulate pollutants to the atmosphere and hazardous chemicals into groundwater. Several uncontrolled fires have recently occurred in tire stockpiles (e.g. California, 1999), which have posed tremendous hazards to the environment. Tire piles are also prime breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other vermin, which are vectors for human diseases such as Dengue fever, Malaria, and West Nile virus. The World Health Organization estimates that over two billion people live in areas at risk for epidemic transmission of these diseases.

Finally, in closing (while I have a tremendous number of other sources including ones looking at the dust on artificial football fields using rubber dust for the base) I found this post while writing this reply:

How Safe is Your Child’s Playground? Recycled Tire Cushioning Poses Health Concerns

"The next time my kids want to play on a recycled tire playground, I think we will walk on by to a playground made with safer materials."

Planning For Everyone

This post may seem unrelated to the functions of most planners. However it relates to an issue that is near and dear to my heart, and it reflects a set of issues that we need to all think carefully about. I am talking about ensuring that our planning efforts are designed to be as inclusive as possible.

My son is a prime example, he is among a growing segment of society that is allergic to the latex protein. The allergy leads to hives, breathing difficulties and ultimately could lead to shock and death. This allergy has led my wife and I to have to look carefully at many aspects of life that others take for granted. We need to ensure that he uses leather basketballs, not latex ones for instance. And, even with these, he has to be reminded that the bladder is latex rubber and to let someone else fill the basketball if it needs air.

Where am I going with this? And, why is it a planner's issue?

Latex rubber is a problem. It has been a growing problem since the first rubber tires were rolled off the assembly line, and will remain so long after the last tire is removed from the market.

Tires cannot be land-filled. Tires should not be stockpiled as they become fire and other biological problems.

So, planners and other solid waste experts are looking for new ways to re-use tires. Spreading the toxic latex further into society than ever before. Used latex tires are being crushed and the crumb rubber being re-used in many ways. Some nearly permanently sealing the latex protein in other binders, such as when used in asphalt. Others re-uses are increasing direct exposure to latex to hazardous levels.

Especially for latex allergic people.

It is this latter re-use that many planners are involved with, not just the solid waste experts, but many of us. Crumb rubber is being used for playgrounds, athletic fields and numerous other items that bring latex into closer proximity to children than ever before. Some, in smaller particles than ever before.

Crumb rubber is being crushed and used as the soft surface under swing sets to replace wood chips. There are reports about young children ingesting these crumbs directly.

Crumb rubber is being rebound and used for solid tiles under swing sets as well. These tiles are intended to make these play areas more accessible to wheel chairs. However, the use is excluding a new group of people from these play areas - some who are even those targeted for improved access. While these tiles are more secure than the crumb rubber noted above they still may release latex into the air due to heating and simple wear and tear.

Finally, crumb rubber is being promoted for new artificial athletic surfaces as the new fields do not require watering, reducing water demand. However, if you watch a football game on these fields, such as the one in Foxborough, watch the little clouds of dust every time a player is tackled. These clouds include fine particles of rubber dust. Players are inhaling this dust. While for most this may simply be an irritant, and in itself poses a problem for asthmatics, it is a deadly risk for a latex allergic child or adult who is introducing an allergen directly into their respiratory system.

As planners, we have many decisions to make. As a parent of a latex allergic child, I want to encourage all planners to consider all possible allergens as we plan for public facilities. Especially public facilities that are intended to serve our young.