Health concerns about using rubber mulch on residential swing set play area
As a recent report shows, more than 300 million discarded tires are generated every year in the United States alone. A percentage of these tires are recycled and ground up into crumbs to be used in gardening and playground areas as a safety fall surface.
When I first came in contact with rubber mulch, as it is called by the industry, I thought it was the best material available for fall cushioning and I was recommending it to all my customers due to its softness and choices of colors.
A few years passed and I read an article about the football fields closing at the Rutgers University in New Jersey over concerns about the newly installed rubber turf and health problems involving some athletes and players that had been using the field. A few students were getting seriously sick from the contact to the rubber crumbs in the field.
The green synthetic turf itself wasn’t causing any harm to the players, however, what was underneath the turf was causing all the problems. Small pea size rubber crumbs that have been used to help with drainage, soften the field and protect the players in case of a fall, were rising to the surface, getting airborne as the students were playing on it and were being inhaled by the players.
As a cushioning material in commercial and residential playgrounds, the rubber mulch will do the same as it did at Rutgers and I am warning all the parents not to buy or let your children play on such material before making their own research on the internet. There has been many reports by healthy agencies and TV news over these danger and you only have to make a search on the internet to find many of those reports and videos.
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Sources:
http://www.ehhi.org/reports/turf/health_effects.shtml
https://www.facebook.com/Ban-Rubber-Mulch-on-Playgrounds-133023466717291/