EPA Research Partner Support Story: Synthetic turf field study
Partner: California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA)
Challenge: Addressing safety concerns of tire crumb rubber used in synthetic turf fields and playgrounds
Resource: Research for improved exposure assessment in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC)
Project Period: 2016 – 2024
EPA ORD collaborated with the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the CPSC to study key environmental and human health questions. To address the concerns that have been raised about the potential health risks from playing on synthetic turf fields containing tire crumb rubber, a Federal Research Action Plan was launched in 2016 to investigate potential human health implications. The Federal Research Action Plan has four parts: a literature review and data gaps analysis, outreach with key stakeholders, tire crumb rubber characterization research, and human exposure characterization research. This research, now complete, serves to provide a better understanding of the chemicals found in tire crumb rubber and the potential exposures that field users may experience by using these fields.
“The U.S. EPA study complements and strengthens what we are doing in California. Consultations with the U.S. EPA scientists benefit our project team and help to improve the quality of the California synthetic turf study.” – CalEPA OEHHA Senior Toxicologist Patty Wong, PhD
EPA and CDC/ATSDR have reported research findings in two parts. Part 1 communicates the research objectives, methods, results and findings for the tire crumb rubber characterization research (i.e., what is in the material). Part 2 reports data to characterize potential human exposures to the chemicals found in the tire crumb rubber material while using synthetic turf fields and includes results from a biomonitoring study conducted by CDC/ATSDR to investigate potential exposure to constituents in tire crumb rubber infill. CPSC has conducted separate research on playgrounds. These research activities and the resulting findings do not provide an assessment of the risks associated with playing on or contact with the recycled tire crumb rubber used for synthetic turf fields. Instead, these research results provide an understanding of the potential for human exposure and should inform future risk assessments.
Researchers at CalEPA OEHHA are also completing research aimed at reducing data gaps for tire crumb rubber constituents and human exposures. The federal research team regularly consulted with OEHHA scientists to discuss how the two studies could be mutually informative. Information was shared between EPA and OEHHA through a Materials Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (MCRADA). The federal and state researchers have implemented methods and approaches that where feasible produced comparable data. This effectively expanded the overall U.S. research sample size and will provide additional insight into potential exposure variability. There are also important differences between the federal and OEHHA studies that provide complementary data for improved exposure assessment. EPA and OEHHA research staff have also jointly participated in sessions on tire crumb research at several international scientific conferences including the 2018 International Society of Exposure Science (ISES)-International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) Ancillary Workshop on Translating Research on Recycled Tire Crumb Rubber: Opportunities for International Cooperation in Ottawa, Canada.