One of the biggest news stations in Chicago, CBS, ran a story last week regarding safety concerns about black rubber crumb being used on artificial sports pitches.
In particular, the story focussed on a large recreation centre which opened towards the end of 2017. It’s a tax-payer funded facility and includes an artificial turf field with crumb rubber infill.
A number of parents have raised concerns that the turf infill is made from recycled tyres and, as such, are refusing to allow their children to use the pitch. One parent had contacted the facility owners before the pitch was laid to voice her concerns about black rubber crumb being used but, despite assurances that they would use another material, black rubber crumb was installed at a cost of $131,000.
As quoted by CBS Chicago, Leslie Billings, one of the Mum’s who are refusing to allow their children to play on the pitch, said: “When you have a product like crumb rubber – you don’t just take a bunch of it, dump it in your facility [and] invite parents to put their kids on it.”
The concerns in Chicago echo worries already raised here in the UK and across the world. For many people, the fears are that black rubber crumb contains chemicals which have been identified as being harmful to human health. Results from multiple studies have never allayed these worries. In the USA, a multi-agency federal research study is underway to establish the key environmental and human health questions surrounding crumb rubber, but the result won’t be available until 2018/19.
These ongoing concerns are one of the main reasons why we created PRO-gran; it guarantees 100% safety to users. Our polymeric infill is coated to ensure that it emits no PAHs, heavy metals or micro plastics. It also comes with a 12-year guarantee so that safety level won’t alter all the time the pitch is in use.
Concerns about black rubber crumb have been voiced for years, and the news story in Chicago shows that fears are not going away. If you are in the process of specifying a new artificial pitch and would like to learn more about how you can future-proof and protect your investment, please contact us today and ask about PRO-gran.
To see the full article from CBS Chicago please follow this link.