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UK’s Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) issued a statement where it reacted to the recent proposal by the European Chemical Agency to ban tyre-derived crumb rubber infill in the EU. Below, we quote the full original press release by the TRA. A proposal by the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) to ban the use of tyre-derived rubber infill in sports surfaces has been deemed incomprehensible and counter-intuitive by members of Britain’s Tyre Recovery Association.

Commercial applications of end-of-life tires (ELT) as crumb rubber infill in sports pitches are unlikely to see any changes after the scientific committees of the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) granted their new approval, Fazilet Cinaralp, secretary of the European Tyre & Rubber Manufacturers Association (ETRMA) said. According to the ECHA’s findings, infill material with levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) below 20 ppm pose no harm to athletes.

Even though earlier media reports stated that the EU was about to introduce a legislation prohibiting the use of artificial turf on playing surfaces, The European Commission stated that the information was misleading. The authoritative body added that it was only focusing its work on health risks posed by some microplastics and looking into developing its sustainable substitutes.

There is a potential risk that application of <5mm crumb rubber infill in artificial sports surfaces like synthetic turf will be banned due to an ongoing probe by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). This claim was reinforced by CEO at the European Tyre & Rubber Manufacturers Association (ETRMA). The potential ban may negatively impact tire recycling’s commercial segment given that significant amount of crumb rubber recovered from old tires is used to produce sport surfaces and rubber infill.

According to the company’s chairman, tire retreading sector creates huge amounts of tire waste and this material is one of the firm’s dominant products for exports as it can be successfully recycled to produce crumb rubber infill for sport fields, tire-derived oil, molded products for flooring, insulation panels and even shoe soles.

Even though studies and researches on the safety of tire-derived crumb rubber infill in artificial turf prove there is ho hazard to human health, debates over the issue are going further. In the beginning of March, Rubber and Plastic News reported that a bill before the Maryland General Assembly had added a new dimension to the controversy surrounding tire-derived crumb rubber used as infill in synthetic athletic turf.

This post is a summary of numerous researches and articles published by European and American research institutions. Dozens of independent researches carried out in Europe and U.S. throughout the past decade inferred that tire-derived rubber infill in the artificial turf poses no threat to human health. Researchers assert unanimously that exposure of athletes’ skin to crumb rubber infill on stadiums and playgrounds yields no elevated risk of cancer. As the issue has been assuming additional importance, it achieved the level of the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) which, together with the European Committee of Standardization, carried out comprehensive researches about crumb rubber exposure on human health.

Good news came from the answer to the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) from the Portuguese team members of the CEN/TC 366, department responsible for the standardization of recycled materials obtained from end-of-life tires (ELT) of European Committee of Standardization, on how crumb rubber affects human health.