Your Kids Might Be Playing on Toxic Chemicals

Sep 12, 2023

The safety of recreational outdoor flooring is rarely discussed. But, according to scientists, your kids might be playing on a bed of toxic chemicals.

Environmental toxicologist Genoa Warner studies the impact of environmental chemicals on the human body at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. "My life collided with my research when my town decided to look into putting artificial turf on the playing fields in the park about a quarter of a mile away from my house, where I take my kids to play," Warner told Newsweek.

In August 2022, Warner and her colleague, Maire Murphy, published a paper in the Journal of Environmental Pollution summarizing the impacts of artificial turf on human health.

"I found it striking that very little health research has been done," Warner said. "We just have not widely studied the health impacts of installing artificial turf in communities and there needs to be more research."

For the most part, the researchers were looking into the impacts of artificial turf for sports fields, rather than the simple sheets of plastic grass you might lay in your garden. "Artificial turf is a very complex, multi-layered, engineered surface," Warner said. "It has a plastic grass layer and a filler underneath that's like a cushy infill. This is usually made of rubber."

Scientists have known for many years that both plastics and rubber can release a range of hazardous chemicals. "We're talking carcinogens and neurotoxins and endocrine disrupters," Warner said. "These things have been widely studied and are generally accepted to be hazardous to human health. But in the context of artificial turf, they haven't really been studied other than that they're in there."

The cushy rubber layer—which is often made from recycled car tires—is a particular concern due to the dangerous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that can released from its surface. According to the CDC, these compounds can cause blood and liver problems—and even cancer.

"Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are found in high concentrations in rubber, that's very well known," Warner said. "The general worry is that people are inhaling fumes that are released from it, or in the case of goalies possibly eating the crumb rubber. But my worry is also the long-term environmental impact, and this has not been studied too much. Things like crumb rubber washing off the sports fields into the playground next door or into the waterways and nearby grass."

Exposure to these chemicals can last long after the turf has been laid. "There's wear and tear and weathering," Warner said. "And then there's heat: artificial turf gets really hot and can actually become unsafe for people to play sports on at high temperatures. The heat can also help volatilize [vaporize] some of these dangerous chemicals."

These concerns are not only relevant to artificial turf— other play surfaces may also pose a health risk as a result of these chemicals. "Crumb rubber is often used as a surface for playgrounds as well because it's kind of cushy, and that can produce a lot of the same worries," Warner said. "They stitch it together so that kids can't easily eat it, but it's the same material."

According to a survey by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, rubber and plastic is the second most common ground material for playgrounds in the U.S., accounting for roughly 25 percent.

Artificial turf has also become increasingly popular, with over 265 million square feet of installed turf in the U.S. in 2020, according to the Synthetic Turf Council.

However, across the nation, there have been calls to limit the use of artificial turf, with some cities, including Boston, Massachusetts, banning it all together. However, it is still unclear exactly how much of an impact these surfaces have on our health.

One study by the Washington State Department of Health in 2017 did not find a significant increase in cancer risk among soccer players who had been playing on artificial turf compared to the general population. However, this study was done using a very small sample size of very fit individuals, which makes it hard to know how applicable these findings are to ordinary people.

"Interrogating how much exposure people get from using those surfaces is hard," Warner said. "Most of the studies are on inhalation if some of those chemicals become volatile [turn into gas]. But I also worry about the run off and the water in the environment and that kind of indirect exposure."

Warner said that there are alternative turfs that do not use crumb rubber, but these may be more expensive or may come with their own risks. "The best alternative is an organic grass field and taking the time to maintain it," she said.

If you do find yourself in play area with turf or rubber flooring, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission has shared some advice on how to limit your child's exposure to any potential environmental hazards:

Is there a health issue that's worrying you? Do you have a question about environmental pollution? Let us know via [email protected]. We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured on Newsweek.