When John Murray was shopping for an artificial-turf field for Camden Catholic High School, he found a wealth of information to help him make a decision.
The piles of documents he gathered, however, did not include a federal report that might answer widening concerns about toxic chemicals found in the ground-up tires that provide the turf's cushioning.
That's because the report doesn't exist - yet.
It's been more than a year since the Environmental Protection Agency began looking to see if the turf releases such chemicals and might be harmful to children. With turf fields continuing to open at a rate of roughly 800 a year - Camden Catholic's tire-cushioned field opened Oct. 3 - federal officials are under increasing pressure to say whether any risk exists.
Some watchdog groups say the EPA is stalling. "If safeguarding children's health is a top priority at EPA, why can't this multibillion-dollar agency afford to take a hard look at what is in our playgrounds, schoolyards and athletic fields?" said Jeff Ruch, director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
A national spotlight first shone on the popular synthetic surfaces in April 2008 when New Jersey health officials announced that high levels of lead dust were discovered in artificial grass fibers on aging Newark and Hoboken fields.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission quickly launched a limited study to see if the fibers posed a health threat. In July, the commission said there wasn't any.
That left the EPA to assess the tire crumbs used as cushioning for the turf. Used tires typically contain numerous toxic chemicals, including mercury and lead. And about 25,000 tires go into an average football field.
Last fall, the agency did a limited test at three fields with tire crumbs to see if a full study was warranted, spokesman Dale Kemery said. The raw data - collected at nose level of children, about three feet above the fields - so far show minimal risk, he said, but the results are still being analyzed.
In July, PEER filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act for records involving the long-awaited study. In response, Eric Wachter, an EPA official, wrote in a Sept. 11 letter that the agency was not "assessing the health effects" of tire crumbs. Instead, EPA is evaluating "monitoring methods" for testing those crumbs, the letter said.
PEER director Ruch said he was surprised. "EPA misled parents and the public into believing it was actually addressing potential toxic exposure risks to kids," he said.
Peter Grevatt, EPA's director of children's health protection and environmental education, said the agency was laying the groundwork for a possible in-depth study. "It's very important if we're going to draw conclusions," he said, to make sure the methods used to collect the data are "giving us accurate and reproducible results."
Suzanne Wuerthele, a retired toxicologist who worked in the EPA regional office in Denver for 23 years, said the EPA could move faster. She alerted the agency to tire-crumb concerns about two years ago.
"There is methodology they can use now. They can take the particles of respirable size and chemically analyze what's in them to see if they're safe," she said. This has been done for 20 years, she said.
In January 2008, the Denver regional office warned EPA headquarters that pulverized recycled tires may contain arsenic, cadmium, chromium, manganese, mercury, lead, benzene, latex, and other compounds. Some are carcinogenic and some can cause brain dysfunction.
In an internal memo obtained by PEER, Stephen Tuber, Denver's assistant regional administrator, cited "information suggesting that children's chronic, repeated exposure to tire crumb could present health hazards." He also warned that high levels of volatile chemicals had been discovered in indoor sports arenas with turf fields.
Tuber recommended that EPA pull its endorsement of fields and playgrounds with tire crumbs until answers are found.
Loose tire crumbs also are used as playground surfaces to cushion falls.
The EPA has taken the stand that recycling tires is a good way to keep them from landfills, where they can catch fire or become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
Public clamor recently led New York City to abandon plans to buy more fields or playgrounds that contain pulverized tires.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Living
Philly.com Promotions
