![]() Risks are maybe “downplayed” despite well-documented links between rubber production and landfill disposal of tyres and illness, and concerns about the health of sports people and others who use such surfaces. The health of some people who work with surfaces made from recycled tyres – such as manufacturers, suppliers, installers and maintainers – may be jeopardised due to inadequate monitoring, according to research done in our Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport. ![]() Insufficient health checks on users of crumb rubber pitches This was done over a small number of days and small number of hours on a handful of adult male Dutch football players and so it cannot answer the question of health effects definitively. There has been only one very small biological uptake in humans study done since crumb rubber was introduced. Their current work won’t report until well into 2018/2019. ![]() They concluded we can’t say whether crumb rubber is or is not safe. The US, which has weaker controls over PAHs in crumb rubber than us, reviewed the literature in 2016/17 and found there were big data gaps in our knowledge and flaws in past studies that suggested crumb rubber was safe to humans. This is where the debate now lies will the chemicals in crumb rubber be taken up and will they affect us? If they are not taken up or taken up only at extremely low levels that cause no effect in humans, then we have no worries. So, the argument is not about whether they are toxic/hazardous, but whether they may be absorbed through the skin and abrasions, inhaled or ingested and, if so, at what level may or will they cause adverse effects. The PAHs have also been linked to immunological and cardio-vascular diseases. Some of the chemicals are also known or suspected to be endocrine disruptors and to have reproductive and developmental effects. The chemicals present in crumb rubber contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) - known cancer-causing substances and phthalates. ![]()
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