Mary Swan Bell on Rubber Waste. Mexico, CA, CT

Dear 60 Minutes,

The heat is turning up on synthetic turf. Not good when it can run 40 degrees or more hotter than grass turf!  http://cahe.nmsu.edu/programs/turf/documents/brigham-young-study.pdf

The EPA and border states are running through OZ poppy fields if they think putting crumb rubber on playgrounds is the right thing to do! http://www.ehhi.org/turf/

Today, our public schools continue to place suspect crumb rubber waste infill and synthetic turf at the feet of our children.  Once again, public school districts are being vetted and brought into a confidence game of sorts.  Our school district told me they understood the synthetic turf product was safe because the manufacturer told them so!  What century is this?  School districts are charmed, in the name of water and maintenance savings, into using products before proper and transparent studies prove beyond a doubt that the public is safe, that our children and environments are safe.  Connecticut is planning to fully study these products.  The Conn. Synthetic Turf Study needs to put into place a conflicts of interest review of all who touch this research.  With the health of this country's children on one side, and on the other, literally hundreds of millions of dollars yearly, riding on the results of this test, any  less than complete transparency will put research back to the starting line.
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-turf0105.artjan05,0,1463639.

Meanwhile:


 U.S.-Mexico Border 2012  has been established to deal with the problems resulting from tire waste along the borders and includes government representatives from Mexico, U.S. Border States government representatives, U.S.EPA members, and tire recycling private concerns.  This organization is directly developing plans to encourage more and more synthetic fields with crumb rubber waste in the U.S.   along with other uses for recycled tire.  This could end up being the mega-superfund clean-up!  Just one example of cause for concern is the chemical make-up of tires.  Crumb rubber fields contain benzene, a California Prop. 65 chemical and one that must be labeled at gas stations in the state.  So, crumb rubber waste, to playgrounds, then back to waste.  Synthetic fields, such as fieldturf/Tarkett are only guaranteed to last 8 years!  Plus with fieldturf/Tarkett,  " FieldTurf infill contains three times more material than any of our competitors. That's 560,000 lbs. more infill per field!  "  By the time our local high school is carpeted by field turf, there will be approximately 120,000 tires in crumb rubber form at Sir Francis Drake High School, San Anselmo, Marin County, California, Home of the Pirates!    I wonder, how many tires constitutes a toxic dump?   
http://www.fieldturf.com/product/overview.cfm 
http://www.epa.gov/usmexicoborder/fora/waste-forum/scraptires.html
http://www.recyclingtoday.com/articles/article.asp?ID=7524&AdKeyword=california+tire+recycling
http://www.mexicanlaws.com/SEMARNAT/semarnat.htm



May 5-9, 2008     The Border-Tire Management Partnership International Tire Conference  had a busy schedule with speakers educating interested parties on such hot topics as:  sales strategies, green building marketing strategies, selling tire-derived products to the government, and my personal favorite, "Doing Business with the State of California"!
http://www.cce.csus.edu/conferences/ciwmb/intertireconf08/agenda.htm


May 8-9, 2008   As part of that same Border-Tire Management Partnership International Tire Conference, , the  U.S. - Mexico Border 2012 members met to "emphasize collaboration among stakeholders".

http://www.epa.gov/usmexicoborder/fora/pdfs/2008-Meeting-Agenda.pdf

Not one of the six actions taken at this conference concerned to chemical make-up of the crumb rubber in question.  Not one of the 23 speakers presented information about the potential toxic nature of crumb rubber waste or the current litigation  surrounding the use of synthetic turf.  Perhaps it should be noted that the participants of this U.S.-Mexico Border 2012 conference were:

Participants: 
Individuals interested in the U.S.-Mexican border scrap tire issue including, but not exclusively, Border 2012 Tire Group members.  The Border 2012 Tire Group emphasizes collaboration among stakeholders who have an interest in border scrap tire issues. Stakeholders include U.S. and Mexican federal, state and  local governments, other governmental organizations, academia, the private sector, and other non-governmental organizations.  Through the concentrated efforts of the Border 2012 Scrap Tire Group, all interested parties can achieve their aims in a mutually beneficial way.  


Once again, it appears that our government is a victim or player in the synthetic turf confidence game.  No environmentalist, no research scientist, no statistics, no substantive information other than removal and marketing appeared on the agenda.    The health and well-being of our children should be of paramount concern to the public education system.  The health and well-being of every member of our communty, watershed, environment deserves and has the right of protection by our government.  Certainly they do not deserve to be victims of  usury.

Thank you for your time and concern in this matter.

Mary Swan Bell, MS
Speech, Language and Hearing
Retired Public Special Education Teacher