Comprehensive multipathway risk assessment of chemicals associated with recycled ("crumb") rubber in synthetic turf fields

Peterson, Michael K.; Lemay, Julie C.; Shubin, Sara Pacheco; Prueitt, Robyn L.

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2017.09.019

Cited by 29 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, the key message (i.e., rubber crumb contains carcinogens) was picked up by no fewer than 57 news outlets and the article received a whopping Altmetric Attention score 3 of 457. This contrasts with much more complex and informative HHRAs (Ginsberg et al, 2011;Menichini et al, 2011;Pavilonis et al, 2014;Peterson et al, 2018) that received scores in the range of 12 to 51.…”

Section: What Kind Of Research Is Out There and How Can We Understand It?mentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Finally, Peterson et al (2018) calculated risk estimates for 33 chemicals, including PAHs, heavy metals, VOCs, and semi-VOCs. They used four exposure scenarios, including child and adult players and spectators.…”

Section: Recent Artificial Turf Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reframing the artificial turf debate as one of hygiene in recreational facilities may be one way to promote overall health. As noted by Peterson et al (2018), urban soils may be contaminated with heavy metals, PAHs, and other chemicals due to traffic-related emissions, de-icing salt, and industrial emissions, in addition to natural soil constituents like arsenic. Canadian cities are no exception (Thomas and Lavkulich, 2015;Wiseman et al, 2015).…”

Section: Risk Communication and Risk-management Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Artificial turf: The contributions and limits of toxicology in decision-making

Eykelbosh

2019

Environ. Health Rev.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: What Kind Of Research Is Out There and How Can We Understand It?mentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Recent Artificial Turf Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Risk Communication and Risk-management Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Artificial turf: The contributions and limits of toxicology in decision-making

Eykelbosh

2019

Environ. Health Rev.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There has been a growing concern about the health risks posed by the chemicals found in synthetic turf (Simcox et al, 2011; Peterson et al, 2018; Celeiro et al, 2018). Users of synthetic turf fields engage in activities that would potentially promote exposure to crumb rubber infill chemicals, such as increased ventilation during exercise, hand-to-mouth contact, and abrasions through falls during competitive sports.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of potential carcinogenicity of organic chemicals in synthetic turf crumb rubber

Perkins

Inayat-Hussain

Deziel

et al. 2019

Environmental Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Currently, there are > 11,000 synthetic turf athletic fields in the United States and > 13,000 in Europe. Concerns have been raised about exposure to carcinogenic chemicals resulting from contact with synthetic turf fields, particularly the infill material (“crumb rubber”), which is commonly fabricated from recycled tires. However, exposure data are scant, and the limited existing exposure studies have focused on a small subset of crumb rubber components. Our objective was to evaluate the carcinogenic potential of a broad range of chemical components of crumb rubber infill using computational toxicology and regulatory agency classifications from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to inform future exposure studies and risk analyses. Through a literature review, we identified 306 chemical constituents of crumb rubber infill from 20 publications. Utilizing ADMET Predictor™, a computational program to predict carcinogenicity and genotoxicity, 197 of the identified 306 chemicals met our a priori carcinogenicity criteria. Of these, 52 chemicals were also classified as known, presumed or suspected carcinogens by the US EPA and ECHA. Of the remaining 109 chemicals which were not predicted to be carcinogenic by our computational toxicology analysis, only 6 chemicals were classified as presumed or suspected human carcinogens by US EPA or ECHA. Importantly, the majority of crumb rubber constituents were not listed in the US EPA (n = 207) and ECHA (n = 262) databases, likely due to an absence of evaluation or insufficient information for a reliable carcinogenicity classification. By employing a cancer hazard scoring system to the chemicals which were predicted and classified by the computational analysis and government databases, several high priority carcinogens were identified, including benzene, benzidine, benzo(a)pyrene, trichloroethylene and vinyl chloride. Our findings demonstrate that computational toxicology assessment in conjunction with government classifications can be used to prioritize hazardous chemicals for future exposure monitoring studies for users of synthetic turf fields. This approach could be extended to other compounds or toxicity endpoints.

show abstract

“…Risks associated with CR differ depending on the exposure route as well as a variety of environmental factors, including precipitation, heating/cooling cycles, ozone, oxygen, and UV light exposure that can accelerate the leaching of toxic chemicals from CR (3). A thorough and comprehensive risk assessment is urgently needed (4) and some federal agencies have recently begun research programs to address this issue (https:// www.epa.gov/chemical-research/federal-research-recycled-tire-crumbused-playing-fields).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial turf infill associated with systematic toxicity in an amniote vertebrate

Lin

Cheong

et al. 2019

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Artificial athletic turf containing crumb rubber (CR) from shredded tires is a growing environmental and public health concern. However, the associated health risk is unknown due to the lack of toxicity data for higher vertebrates. We evaluated the toxic effects of CR in a developing amniote vertebrate embryo. CR water leachate was administered to fertilized chicken eggs via different exposure routes, i.e., coating by dropping CR leachate on the eggshell; dipping the eggs into CR leachate; microinjecting CR leachate into the air cell or yolk. After 3 or 7 d of incubation, embryonic morphology, organ development, physiology, and molecular pathways were measured. The results showed that CR leachate injected into the yolk caused mild to severe developmental malformations, reduced growth, and specifically impaired the development of the brain and cardiovascular system, which were associated with gene dysregulation in aryl hydrocarbon receptor, stress-response, and thyroid hormone pathways. The observed systematic effects were probably due to a complex mixture of toxic chemicals leaching from CR, such as metals (e.g., Zn, Cr, Pb) and amines (e.g., benzothiazole). This study points to a need to closely examine the potential regulation of the use of CR on playgrounds and artificial fields.

show abstract

Comprehensive multipathway risk assessment of chemicals associated with recycled ("crumb") rubber in synthetic turf fields

Cited by 29 publications

References 11 publications

Artificial turf: The contributions and limits of toxicology in decision-making

Artificial turf: The contributions and limits of toxicology in decision-making

Evaluation of potential carcinogenicity of organic chemicals in synthetic turf crumb rubber

Artificial turf infill associated with systematic toxicity in an amniote vertebrate

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About