A number of former goalkeepers who played on artificial turf fields filled with recycled rubber tire crumbs have developed rare lymphomas[1]. But proponents of artificial turf fields claim the rubberized fields are safe[2].
So, they keep building artificial turf fields. Kids will be the ultimate guinea pigs to find out who is right with regards to human toxicity.
The one sure thing is the tiny rubber tire crumbs are headed into Mobile’s MS4 storm drainage system where they will become part of the marine environment likely in the Dog River watershed first. Then flooding rains will flush the tiny dark rubber particles into Mobile Bay and then into the Gulf of Mexico. Putting rubber as a consumable product into the marine environment food chain cannot be good.
Will the Manatees be able to avoid consuming the rubber as they eat massive quanities of under water grass? Will fish eat the tiny rubber particles? If so, will the chemicals in the rubber be assimilated into the fish meat?
The people who authorized and built the rubber play fields in Mobile obviously don’t care if rubber crumbs are a marine environment pollutant.
The good thing is the tiny black rubber tire crumbs will be almost impossible to see in the marine environment.
The bad thing is all the toxins in the environment that you cannot see. Have you had cancer yet? Be patient. Keep polluting the only water we have on the only spaceship we have to live on in this universe and cancer rates will keep rising.
[1] http://necir.org/2015/05/10/toxic-turf/
[2] http://www.fieldturf.com/it/fieldturf-difference/artificial-turf-safety-proven-with-science