NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today the Recycled Rubber Council, an organization whose mission is to communicate, advocate, and educate stakeholders about the safety and beneficial uses of recycled rubber, issued the following statement in response to the September 30, 2015 and October 1, 2015 NBC News reports on this topic:
Recycled rubber used in synthetic turf fields and other products is safe and does not cause cancer. Rubber has been an everyday part of life in America for more than 170 years and to claim that it suddenly poses a health risk is simply false. The fact is that rubber goes through a process that makes it safe for use and renders any harmful chemicals inert. The rubber in recycled tires is the same as the rubber in sneakers, sidewalks, asphalt highways and roads, garden hoses, strollers, gym floors, mouthpieces for some musical instruments, and many other products widely recognized as 100 percent safe.
Our hearts go out to the cancer patients and their families identified in the NBC segment, but we have to look at the facts and the science. As an industry, we unequivocally stand behind these products and we would not put our children and grandchildren on fields or playgrounds with crumb rubber if they were hazardous.
NBC itself states, “No research has linked crumb or shredded rubber to cancer.” And MIT-educated toxicologist Laura Green notes in the report, “There's zero reason to be concerned that playing on synthetic turf will put your child at risk for cancer… It's simply not true.”
The fact is that dozens of studies from academic, federal and state government organizations have found no connection between recycled rubber and any health issues. Additionally, a number of state level departments of health, including in Connecticut and Massachusetts, have responded to baseless fears about fields with crumb rubber and confirmed they are safe. In particular, a comprehensive Connecticut Department of Public Health (CDPH) study looked at a variety of fields across a range of conditions and found that exposure to the chemicals that have been called into question did not reach unsafe levels.
These products provide innovative solutions to a range of challenges today – from creating the safest playground surfaces available for use today, to reducing the chance of injuries for athletes both professional and amateur, to building lower-impact hospital floors for nurses on their feet all day. The benefits of using recycled rubber for the environment are also clear, eliminating the need for pesticides or other dangerous chemicals, and saving millions of gallons of water annually. Today, manufacturers around the world give these tires a second life as products we use each and every day - most we do not even give a second thought to.
We can always do more research, but we are fully confident in what all the available data tells us – there is no link between crumb rubber and health issues. To say that rubber is harmful is simply unfounded.
For further information on the Recycled Rubber Council please visit http://www.recycledrubbersafetycouncil.org/.
About the Recycled Rubber Council
The Recycled Rubber Council (RRC) serves manufacturers, processors, and distributors of recycled rubber products; entities that supply products or services to those that manufacture or process recycled rubber products; and individuals or entities that benefit from recycled rubber products. Its mission is to communicate, advocate, and educate about the safety and beneficial uses of recycled rubber. For more information, please visit http://www.recycledrubbersafetycouncil.org/.
