Hartland Elementary School Scraps Its Playground Bits

Shredded Tire Material Toxic, Students Say

By Katy Savage, Standard Staff

Five years ago, Hartland Elementary School improved its playground, replacing wood chips with shredded tires, deemed the safest material around.

At six inches deep, the springy material, called shredded mulch rubber, was sought after because it prevented injury from trips and falls. It was “trendy” and “aesthetically pleasing,” Principal Jeff Moreno said.

The rubber was installed for a total cost of $11,809 in 2011.

The Hartland school board agreed to release up to $25,000 from a reserve fund to replace the rubber with pulverized wood chips this summer. State Street School in Windsor is doing the same with the rubber at its playground. The rubber mulch is also at Barnard Academy.

The aesthetically pleasing material could cause cancer, HES fifth-grade students found.

Four students spent several months researching their playground material after seeing its potential harm on the news last fall. They wrote a persuasive essay and presented to the school board this spring.

They researched a list of toxic chemicals with names they had to study to pronounce correctly, like styrene, benzene, mercury, styrenebutadiene, polyclinic anomic hydrocarbons, carbon, lead and arsenic. All of which, and more, are on their playground, they found.

“Styrene is a neuro-toxic chemical, it can cause injury to the brain and nervous systems. Plus it could affect your lungs and other vital organs…so why is it on the playgrounds?” the students asked in their research report.

The shredded rubber is made of recycled tires, similar to crumb rubber found on artificial turf fields.

In June 2015, the Environment and Human Health, Inc., a nonprofit that protects people from environmental harm, said 153 athletes who play on crumb rubber had been diagnosed with cancer, many of whom were student athletes, particularly soccer players.

The Environment and Human Health, Inc. commissioned a study with Yale University, which found 96 chemicals in the recycled tire product. Ten of those chemicals were “probable carcinogens.” In 2012 researchers found air pollutant levels to be “extremely high” in rubber mulch samples collected from playgrounds in Europe. Researchers said, “uses of recycled rubber tires, especially those targeting play areas and other facilities for children, should be a matter of regulatory concern.”

Research regarding the harm of recycled tires in play areas is limited and the harm of the rubber material is debated.

A study at four Connecticut artificial turf fields in 2012 found about 200 air chemicals at each field. The levels of chemicals didn’t pose a health threat, but the Department of Public Health recommended ventilation and said that developers of new indoor fields should consider alternatives to crumb rubber.

“Limited studies have not shown an elevated health risk from playing on fields with tire crumb, but the existing studies do not comprehensively evaluate the concerns about health risks from exposure to tire crumb,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a recent press release.

The EPA is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and Consumer Product and Safety Commission on an investigation to better understand the harm of the rubber product, according to a press release from the CDC. The investigation launched in February 2016 and a report is expected later this year.

The material at Hartland and Windsor schools comes from Ulti-Play Parks & Playgounds, Inc., a Massachusetts-based company that works with schools throughout New England.

Mike Parody, the president of the company, assured the product is safe, distinguishing the shredded tire mulch from the crumb rubber on turf fields, where the soccer athletes may have developed cancer.

“It’s like walking on the moon,” Parody said.

The product is manufactured by Creative Rubber Works, which has sold millions of pounds of the product across the country.

Creative Rubber Works Vice President Susan Weinstein said she doesn’t know about the toxicity. According to company website, “Creative Rubber Works (CRW) exceeds the standards set by U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.”

The rubber product from CRW is certified by the International Play Equipment Manufacturer’s Association, an organization that certifies playground products in the United States and Canada.

In March 2012, IPEMA released a statement on tire mulch, saying “IPEMA does not dictate or recommend whether its members use recycled rubber in their products. It is the choice of the individual member.”

IPEMA said it “is always interested in reviewing new safety information, including any independent, third party, scientific studies concerning the use of recycled tires.”

Research up until now hasn’t swayed the organization to call the tire mulch unsafe.

The group of female Hartland students spent lunch and recess time researching the past year, working with Moreno and other teachers.

“Before (our research) we were almost burying each other in it, like sand, especially the younger kids were putting it in their mouths, throwing it, kicking it,” student Megan Lang said. “It gets on my hair, it gets on my clothes.”

The material is hard to avoid. It rests outside the play area. Pieces of it get carried into the school building.

“It like sticks to everything,” student Alexina Peckinpaugh said.

It also smells, especially after it rains.

“I knew we needed to get rid of it rather than wait for empirical data to tell us what our guts and brains are telling us is not good,” Moreno said, calling the student research “eye opening.”

The replacement of the recycled tires received mixed feelings.

Before the students presented to the school board, they presented to their peers. Some were convinced by the students, others were disrespectful.

“They didn’t understand our point,” Megan said.

Students, including their younger siblings, continued to play on the playground despite the advice of their peers. The school staff is also weary of calling the material harmful.

Windsor Schools Building and Ground Director Jim Taft said the material is being replaced because it’s messy, not because it’s toxic.

Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union Superintendent David Baker echoed what Taft said. Baker said the fifth-grade students had nothing to do with the products’ removal.

“They created an unsightly mess and they needed to go. That decision was made during budget time last year. I have no idea where the fifth-grade project came from, but I applaud their effort. The two are not related,” Baker said in an email.

Toxic or not, the student’s research was enough to convince school board members.

“It was the first I had heard about it,” school board chair Bettina Read said. “I was surprised about it because it was not that many years ago we replaced it to what it is now. At that time nobody had any concerns about it.”

The group of four ambitious students is best friends and their younger brothers are also best friends.

Between them they have a hefty extra-curricular schedule, including gymnastics, softball, 4-H and other activities.

They’ve approached Moreno about other school issues, like assigned seating at lunch. The students made petition posters about the rubber mulch in case the school board said no to its removal.

“If there is even a little chance (which there is) that it can be dangerous for young children then why do people put it on playgrounds where little kids play?” the students asked in their report.

This article first appeared in the July 21, 2016 edition of the Vermont Standard.