Save Golden Gate Park

hemicals, carcinogens, and heavy metals including lead,
- eight chemicals appear on the California Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer,
- five of these gave increased lifetime cancer risks. Materials in SBR were added to the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, (OEHHI), list of substances known to the State to cause cancer based on the findings of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, (IARC) of the World Health Organization. More and more cities have determined that SBR is not worth the public health risk to their citizens. After installing over 90 synthetic athletic fields, New York City has unconditionally chosen to ban SBR crumb for public health considerations. The cash strapped Los Angeles Unified School District is in the middle of a serious budget crisis, and yet they have also banned this material stating, “The health of our students is more important than any other issue. “ and, “ You should never equate economics with health.”

The San Francisco Planning Department report states; “SBR Tire Crumb is known to contain a number of VOCs, SVOCs (including benzothiazoles, aniline, and phenols), and metals (including barium, chromium, lead, manganese, and zinc). Impacts related to the routine use of the synthetic turf would be significant if the use resulted in adverse health effects due to inhalation of vapors and particulates from the synthetic turf, ingestion of the synthetic turf, dermal contact with the synthetic turf materials”. The SF Planning Department report also reveals that, “studies have shown fine particulates small enough to be inhaled into the deepest parts of the human lung contribute to the death of approximately 200 to 500 people per year in the Bay Area.”

Despite these findings, the San Francisco Parks Commission is currently considering authorizing the RPD to continue to use SBR crumb throughout San Francisco public spaces;
- several tons in District 8, the Mission,
- over 2500 tons spread over 10 acres in a District 11 Oceanview neighborhood,
(adjacent to an elementary school, a senior center, and a children’s center)
- over 2500 tons over 9 acres in Golden Gate Park,
- as well as over 2500 tons over 9 more acres in a District 4 West Sunset neighborhood, (directly adjacent to 3 different public schools and a DPH health center). These are not citizens or neighborhoods where associated health costs and expenses can go unnoticed. Barry Boyd, Oncologist at the Yale Cancer Center, said, ” Because artificial turf playing fields are disproportionately used by children and adolescents, these childhood exposures to environmental carcinogens may add to lifelong risk of cancer as well as the exposures to the many respiratory irritants and toxicants found off-gassing from these fields.”

Children, especially very young children, have many characteristics which make them vulnerable to environmental exposures. Children breathe more air per pound of body weight than adults in the same environment and physical activity adds an additional factor to exposure through inhalation. Children also engage in hand-to-mouth behavior and very young children may eat nonfood items, such as rubber crumbs while on the fields. The protective keratinized layer of the skin is not as well developed in children and increases dermal absorption of COPCs as well as increasing evaporative loss of water on hot days. Children also have many more years to develop diseases with long latency periods after exposure. REPORT states; “ Possible routes of exposure to chemicals are inhalation, ingestion, and skin absorption. VOCs are released into the air (called off‐gassing)” (DEIR Initial Study page 25)

In regards to user exposures to particulates California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment wrote, (2009), “Data are needed for the amount of time athletes spend on artificial turf playing fields. Data are needed for a variety of sports, age groups, and for both men and women. Other subgroups with potentially heavy exposure to fields include coaches, referees, and maintenance workers.”

Additional heavy exposure risks include; specific sports positions, (soccer goalies, catchers), or passive users, (individuals sleeping or napping on field, neighbors living adjacent to fields). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3PkDHU7p70

Lead contamination is of particular concern because lead has no useful function in the body but it harms children’s intelligence at quite low concentrations in the body. Toxicologist Steven Gilbert notes, “Currently, there appears to be no safe level of lead exposure for the developing child.”Lead is listed as a carcinogen and developmental toxicant by the State of California. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/04/MN1F1MKV27.DTL

Since 1973, the action level of lead in children’s blood (the point at which exposure reduction is recommended) has been lowered from 40 to 10 ug/deciliter, and the argument has been made that it should be lowered even further to 2 ug/deciliter. (San Francisco Chronicle - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/04/MN1F1MKV27.DTL )

SBR TIRE CRUMB, CARBON BLACK, and NANOPARTICLES ANALYSIS

The San Francisco Planning Department REPORT states; “The SBR material contains carbon black, an industrial chemical used in the manufacturing of automobile tires and other plastic materials.” (DEIR page IV.H-2)

Carbon Black is a petroleum derivative that makes up to half of a tire, (as well as a synthetic field’s SBR tire infill). The REPORT states; “It, (Carbon Black), is composed of nanoparticles that are much smaller than PM10 and PM2.5 (nanoparticles vary in size from 1 to 100 nanometers, with a billion nanometers forming a meter).” (DEIR page IV.H-2)

Carbon Black was added to the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) of the California Environmental Protection Agency, (Cal/EPA), list of substances known to the State to cause cancer on February 21, 2003. The listing was triggered by the ‘authoritative’ body mechanism in the California Code of Regulations and is based on the IARC reclassification from 1995/96. They also added carbon black to the list of chemicals known to the State to cause cancer for purposes of the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65). In 1995, and more recently in February 2006, an International Agency for Research on Cancer, (IARC), panel of experts conducted a comprehensive review of carbon black. The IARC is part of the World Health Organization. They concluded that there was “sufficient evidence” of carcinogenicity of Carbon Black in laboratory animals. The Digest Journal of Nanomaterials and Biostructures reported in 2008;
Nanoparticles are able to cross biological membranes such as the blood-brain barrier and access cells, tissues and organs. Nanoparticles can gain access to the blood stream via inhalation or ingestion. At least some nanomaterials can pe*****te the skin; even larger microparticles may pe*****te skin when it is flexed. Turf burns, open wounds, even acne, or severe sunburn may accelerate skin uptake of nanoparticles. Once in the blood stream, nanoparticles can be transported around the body and be taken up by organs and tissues, including the brain, heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, bone marrow and nervous system.

“Nanomaterials have proved toxic to human tissue and cell cultures, resulting in increased oxidative stress, inflammatory cytokine production and cell death. Nanoparticles may be taken up by cell mitochondria and the cell nucleus. Studies demonstrate the potential for nanoparticles to cause DNA mutation and induce major structural damage to mitochondria, even resulting in cell death. Nanoparticles can activate the immune system inducing inflammation, immune responses, or allergies.“

“Carbon black nanoparticles induce type II epithelial cells to release chemotaxins for alveolar macrophages.”” Nanoparticles are considered a potential threat to the lungs and the mechanism of pulmonary response to nanoparticles is currently under intense scrutiny.”
http://www.particleandfibretoxicology.com/content/2/1/11

NANOPARTICLE TOXICITY

Nanotoxicology is a sub-specialty of particle toxicology. It addresses the toxicology of nanoparticles (particles