Recycled rubber, synthetic turf industries adopt safety standards

Members of the recycled rubber and synthetic turf industries have announced that they are cooperating to ensure that all synthetic turf and playground infills meet new American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) toy standards for heavy metals to further guarantee safety for youth athletes.

ASTM International establishes industrywide standards across a range of materials, including all toys sold in the United States. With the announcement, all synthetic turf field and playground infill created and used by members of the Recycled Rubber Council, Safe Fields Alliance and Synthetic Turf Council will comply with F3188-16, the Standard Specification for Extractable Hazardous Metals in Synthetic Turf Infill Materials.

“Our industry firmly believes in taking proactive steps to augment ongoing testing by the federal government to reassure parents and policymakers that the fields and playgrounds children play on are every bit as safe as the toys they play with,” says Steve Bigelow, president of the Recycled Rubber Council, Falls Church, Virginia. “We’ve chosen to voluntarily take this step to demonstrate our commitment to children safety, and we continue to welcome all further scientific-based testing and collaboration towards achieving these ends.”

“Today’s announcement simply reinforces our industry’s commitment to safety and transparency, which we have also made clear through our support of the current federal multiagency study,” says Rom Reddy, managing partner of Sprinturf, an integrated polyethylene turf company headquartered in Atlanta.

“At the same time, it is important to reaffirm that based on dozens of reports, including peer-reviewed academic studies and federal and state government analyses, recycled rubber infill has no link to any health issues. Hopefully, this will go one step further towards alleviating any concerns around this issue,” Reddy adds.

“With the addition of F3188-16 to our industry guidelines for infill, we continue to take voluntarily steps to adopt key safety standards in the use of our products,” says Daniel Bond, president and CEO of the Synthetic Turf Council, Forest Hill, Maryland. “We are committed to adopting the most stringent of standards moving forward.”