Diana Zuckerman Comments on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Priorities for FY2025/2026

08.05.2024 20:19

May 8, 2024: NCHR recommended that Consumer Product Safety Commission FY 2025-26 priorities include reducing exposures to PFAS and other chemicals, lead, and heavy metals in tire crumb used in homes, backyards, daycare, playgrounds, and artificial turf fields.

The post Diana Zuckerman Comments on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Priorities for FY2025/2026 appeared first on National Center for Health Research.

May 8, 2024

Thank you for the opportunity to share the views of the National Center for Health Research concerning the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) priorities for fiscal years 2025 and 2026. Our nonprofit public health think tank is staffed by scientists, medical professionals, and public health experts who analyze and review research on a range of health and safety issues. We greatly respect the essential role of the CPSC, as well as the challenges you face in selecting the most important priorities.

We want to start by emphasizing an issue involving chemicals and heavy metals in products that have become increasingly popular in homes, daycare centers, schools, and communities, affecting our health and our children’s health. We also want the CPSC to consider expanding its role in improving the process of recalling unsafe products. These issues are clearly consistent with CPSC priorities.

First, I will focus on the need to protect children from exposure to PFAS, other endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and heavy metals from recycled tire waste and other synthetic rubber. This needs to be a priority because many children in the U.S. are exposed to tire waste and other synthetic rubber day after day, year after year. In the past, our Center was concerned about exposures in school and community playgrounds and artificial turf fields, but in the last few years these materials have become surprisingly common in homes, daycare centers, and lawns in our communities. Research has not kept up with these developments, because the exposure levels can be much higher from products in our homes than they tend to be in public areas.

If you go online and search for rubber tiles, rubber mulch, and rubber play areas, you will see what I mean. You will be amazed at what you find. Whether looking at popular websites such as Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Amazon, or on the websites of companies you’ve never heard of, you will find the following:

Bags of tire waste dyed pretty colors being sold directly to consumers to use in play areas near swings and other play equipment in their backyards. Photos show children lying on the tire waste as if they were making snow angels or enjoying the beach. One company even calls itself PlaySafer. These products are being advertised as a safer surface for children to play than grass.
Rubber tiles, also dyed attractive colors, for flooring in homes, daycare centers, and any place that children play. Sheets of rubber flooring are being sold for exercise rooms and other indoor areas.
Rubber mulch is marketed to replace wood mulch for gardening, to be used around trees, flowers, and shrubs in your yard. It is more expensive than wood mulch, but is marketed as cost effective because it lasts for years. These products are marketed as a “landscaping option” that is safe for pets.

You often need to read the fine print to see that these are all made out of “recycled rubber” and in some cases it is clearly stated that these materials are recycled tire waste that is enthusiastically described as “environmentally friendly.” Nowhere do they state that these materials have been found to contain PFAS or other endocrine disrupting chemicals that can cause or exacerbate obesity, attention deficits, early puberty, asthma, allergies, and can cause cancer. Nowhere does it state that tire waste used on playgrounds has been found to contain lead and other heavy metals. The data on lead are somewhat confusing because tire crumb is heterogenous in terms of lead. Researchers from Ecology Center tested for lead in tire shreds from Washington, D.C. playgrounds and found shreds with 2,000-4,000 ppm (much higher than EPA and CPSC considers safe), shreds with no measurable lead, and everything in-between.[1] If tire crumb lead levels are averaged, it is sometimes relatively low although other heavy metals may be high.[2] If a child eats one or more pieces that are high in lead or other heavy metals, it’s obviously dangerous. In other words, tire crumb is unpredictably risky and needs to be regulated to prevent unsafe exposures.

That’s probably one of the reasons that the EPA’s recently released report on artificial turf concluded that tire crumb contains dangerous chemicals but that the exposure can be considered “generally safe.” Of course, “generally safe” doesn’t mean safe for everyone, since some children are more vulnerable to these exposures than others, and some will be exposed more often than others. The EPA report had numerous shortcomings, which the report clearly admitted; it is not a risk assessment and the agency stated that it was unable to do all the tests that would have provided important information and therefore could not draw definitive conclusions. One questionable finding that the report did not mention is that when air temperature was in the 90’s, EPA stated that the temperature of artificial turf did not exceed 105 degrees Fahrenheit. That is not credible, since we have measured temperatures on artificial turf and playgrounds between 150-180 degrees in Bethesda and D.C. In addition, any local students will tell you that artificial turf fields often smell terrible on sunny days. That’s the result of off-gassing. The exposures from artificial turf are primarily to older children and adults. These exposures are very different from young children playing on the ground, putting tire crumb in their mouths, and getting the dust and other chemical residue on their hands, clothes, and toys and from there in their mouths.

We appreciate the CPSC’s online warnings to parents and caregivers about the unknown risks of recycled tire crumb. It clearly states that the risks are unknown but that precautions can be taken. Realistically, however, how many parents are going to remove a child’s clothing immediately after they play in tire crumb, wash their clothes, give the child a bath, and also wash their toys? It goes without saying that any parent who buys these materials for their own home or yards is not going to be aware of these CPSC warnings.

We also appreciate the CPSC’s ban on several endocrine-disrupting chemicals in toys and products for young children. The products now being used for playroom floors, playgrounds, and play areas in homes across the country deserve at least as much attention.

As CPSC’s focus groups to examine children’s use of playgrounds and exposure to playground surfaces have shown, children who use playgrounds with artificial surfaces could be exposed to the chemicals in these surfaces.[3] Unfortunately, the materials that make up these surfaces are often treated as “trade secrets,” making it impossible to know what is in them and to compare the safety of various products. Meanwhile, the manufacturers often make claims regarding safety that are not supported by well-designed studies or standards. For example, they say their products contain “no PFAS” chemicals but they only test for a small number of PFAS chemicals, certainly not most PFAS chemicals. In fact, there is growing evidence of PFAS in these materials.[4] Nevertheless, we have repeatedly heard erroneous claims in testimony at the state and local government level – erroneous claims that CPSC has concluded these materials are safe. That is misleading, giving families a false impression that any product sold in the U.S. for children is proven safe.

We encourage you to closely evaluate the research that has been done on tire crumb, crumb rubber, and artificial turf, focusing on independently funded research of short-term and long-term safety issues. We also urge you to carefully examine the EPA study to be aware of its shortcomings and especially the vague generalizations pertaining to safety. Families need information that enable them to protect their children from harm, and federal agencies have not yet provided that information.

We strongly urge you to convene a Chronic Hazard Advisory Panel (CHAP) to examine the short-term and long-term risks of different types of tire crumb materials that children are exposed to in their homes, as well as in daycare centers, and school and community playgrounds.

The rubber and plastic that make up these surfaces contain chemicals with known health risks, which are released into the air and get onto skin and clothing. Crumb rubber – whether from recycled tires or “virgin rubber”– includes endocrine disruptors, heavy metals such as lead and zinc, as well as other carcinogens and skin irritants such as some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).[5]^{,[6],[7],[8],[9]} Plastic fields also contain many of these chemicals.[10] While one-time or sporadic exposures are unlikely to cause long-term harm, children’s repeated exposures over the years, especially during critical developmental periods, can cause serious harm. Children spend many hours in their early years on playgrounds and play areas, and those exposures are even greater when children are exposed in their own homes or backyards.

In addition to the long-term risks of cancer and hormone disruption, these fields can also cause short-term harms. Dust from these products may exacerbate children’s asthma.[11]^,[12] Artificial turf fields and rubber surface playgrounds reach temperatures that are more than 70 degrees warmer than nearby grass.[13]^{,[14],[15],[16]} We have measured the temperatures ourselves and know of examples of these temperatures causing heat stress and burns.

CPSC Product Recalls

I want to briefly mention our concerns about product recalls. CPSC has made important strides in recalling unsafe products, such as those that endanger sleeping infants. However, recalls are not entirely successful in getting unsafe products off the market, especially because of online sales or as second-hand product sales or hand-me-downs. We urge CPSC to strengthen its efforts to reduce the availability of recalled products.

Final Thoughts

CPSC has a key role to play in protecting children and adults from harmful products used in their daily life. Companies often do not provide information that consumers need to make informed choices, and in some cases there is no credible research about the potential health impact of chemicals in popular products before they are widely sold. Too often, the lack of independently funded and publicly available research has been used to mislead the public. Claims that “there is no evidence of harm” are misunderstood to mean “there is no harm.” While research is lacking regarding the exact extent of the dangers of many of these products, there is already sufficient evidence that probable carcinogens and other toxic chemicals are being used.

In conclusion, CPSC has an essential role in reducing harm to consumers, especially children. For that reason, improving the timeliness and targeting of information campaigns to warn parents and children about harmful products is a key task of the CPSC.

[1] Letter from The Ecology Center to Paul Kihn, Acting Deputy Mayor for Education, Washington DC, July 29, 2019. Available at jeffg@ecocenteter.org

[2] Winz R, Yu L, Sung, L et al. 2023. Assessing children’s potential exposures to harmful metals in tire crumb rubber by accelerated photodegradation weathering. Scientific Reports. 2023; 13:13877.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-38574-z

[3] Consumer Product Safety Commission. Summary of Playground Surfacing Focus Groups. 2018. https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/Playground_Surfacing_Focus_Group_Report_2018.pdf

[4]Amenabar T. Turf fields may have ‘forever chemicals.’ Should kids be playing on them? 2024. The Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/03/12/artificial-turf-pfas-chemicals/

[5] California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). Evaluation of health effects of recycled waste wires in playground and track products. Prepared for the California Integrated Waste Management Board. 2007. https://www2.calrecycle.ca.gov/Publications/Details/1206

[6] Llompart M, Sanchez-Prado L, Lamas JP, et al. Hazardous organic chemicals in rubber recycled tire playgrounds and pavers. Chemosphere. 2013;90(2):423-431. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22921644/

[7] Marsili L, Coppola D, Bianchi N, et al. Release of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals from rubber crumb in synthetic turf fields: Preliminary hazard assessment for athletes. Journal of Environmental and Analytical Toxicology. 2014;5:(2):1133-1149. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21797768

[8] Benoit G, Demars S. Evaluation of organic and inorganic compounds extractable by multiple methods from commercially available crumb rubber mulch. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution. 2018;229:64. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11270-018-3711-7

[9] Perkins AN, Inayat-Hussain SH, Deziel NC, et al. Evaluation of potential carcinogenicity of organic chemicals in synthetic turf crumb rubber. Environmental Research. 2018;169:163–172. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6396308/

[10] Kim S, Yang JY, Kim HH, et al. Health risk assessment of lead ingestion exposure by particle sizes in crumb rubber on artificial turf considering bioavailability. Environmental Health and Toxicology. 2012;27:e2012005. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3278598/

[11] Shalat SL. An evaluation of potential exposures to lead and other metals as the result of aerosolized particulate matter from artificial turf playing fields. Submitted to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. 2011. http://www.nj.gov/dep/dsr/publications/artificial-turf-report.pdf

[12] Mount Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center. Artificial turf: A health-based consumer guide. 2017. http://icahn.mssm.edu/files/ISMMS/Assets/Departments/Environmental%20Medicine%20and%20Public%20Health/CEHC%20Consumer%20Guide%20to%20Artificial%20Turf%20May%202017.pdf

[13] Serensits TJ, McNitt AS, Petrunak DM. Human health issues on synthetic turf in the USA. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part P: Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology. 2011;225(3):139-146. https://plantscience.psu.edu/research/centers/ssrc/documents/human-health-issues-on-synthetic-turf-in-the-usa.pdf

[14] Penn State’s Center for Sports Surface Research. Synthetic turf heat evaluation- progress report. 2012. http://plantscience.psu.edu/research/centers/ssrc/documents/heat-progress-report.pdf

[15] Thoms AW, Brosnan, Zidek JM, et al. Models for predicting surface temperatures on synthetic turf playing surfaces. Procedia Engineering. 2014;72:895-900. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705814006699

[16] Balazs GC, Pavey GJ, Brelin AM, et al. Risk of anterior cruciate ligament injury in athletes on synthetic playing surfaces: A systematic review. American Journal of Sports Medicine. 2015;43(7):1798-804. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25164575

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