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I am a conservation specialist for a government agency. As part of my job, I analyzed the suitabilty of an artifical turf rebate program for our customers. I believe the findings on artificial turf can be applicable to rubber mulch. They are both made from old tires, and the issues of toxic dust and runoff are similar.
The following is from the section on what you should do if your kid plays on artificial turf:
.****(BEGIN QUOTE)
· Children ages 6 and younger are most susceptible to lead’s harmful health effects. To protect the public, in particular young children, consider posting signs indicating that:
1. After playing on the field, individuals are encouraged to perform aggressive hand and body washing for at least 20 seconds using soap and warm water.
2. Clothes worn on the field should be taken off and turned inside out as soon as possible after using the field to avoid tracking contaminated dust to other places. In vehicles, people can sit on a large towel or blanket if it is not feasible to remove their clothes. These clothes, towels, and blankets should be washed separately and shoes worn on the field should be kept outside of the home.
3. Eating while on the field or turf product is discouraged.
4. Avoid contaminating drinking containers with dust and fibers from the field. When not drinking, close them and keep them in a bag, cooler, or other covered container on the side of the field.
***(END OF QUOTE)
It is notable that, in response to the CDC's advisory, San Diego has stopped its rebate program for turf removal and replacement with artificial turf.
An issue not yet addressed by the CDC is the high incidence of MRSA infections associated with artificial turf.
The issue with MRSA is that, unlike grass turf, artificial turf is not cut off and not regularly irrigated. Therefore, contaminants, including blood and body fluids of players, accumulate, including infectious body fluids. The artificial turf industry has come up with bacteriacides for drenching the artificial-turf fields, but then that brings up the additional issues of player exposure to the bacteriacide residues, toxic runoff, and breeding up more resistant forms of MRSA.
Artificial turf contains heavy metals. The metal of focus by the CDC is iron, but notably cadmium and zinc are also found. As the product degrades, these heavy meals are released and can cause toxic damage to our environment. According to OSHA, it takes very little cadmium exposure to cause health problems.
I would strongly advise those considering use of rubber mulch in their landscape to take into consideration the leachate produced by them and especially the risks if it is exposed to flame. One thing not addressed by the discussion of fire risk is the issue of exposure to toxic fumes should it catch fire. Fires from rubber tires produce very toxic fumes. It would be logical to surmise that fires from products of rubber tires would also produce very toxic fumes.
As far as using it on a playground or othe child-playing surfaces, I would recommend that parents review the CDC's information on steps recommended should a child play on artificial turf. Clearly, there is a high level of toxicity involved, especially for children who have less body mass and so are often impacted more severely from exposure to toxins.
