NCHR Comments on CPSC Priorities for FY2021/2022

April 2020. We want to start by emphasizing two issues involving chemicals in products that affect our and our children’s health, (1) artificial turf and playground surfaces and equipment, and (2) organohalogen flame retardants. We will also briefly discuss sport and recreational helmets, sleep-related products for infants, furniture stability, home elevators, and liquid nicotine packaging. All these issues should be CPSC priorities.

The post NCHR Comments on CPSC Priorities for FY2021/2022 appeared first on National Center for Health Research.

National Center for Health Research, April 2020

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Diana Zuckerman, Ph.D., President of the National Center for Health Research

Comments on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Agenda and Priorities for FY2021/2022

April 2020

The National Center for Health Research is a nonprofit research center staffed by scientists, medical professionals, and public health experts who analyze and review research on a range of health issues. Thank you for the opportunity to share our views concerning the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) priorities for fiscal years 2021 and 2022. We greatly respect the essential role of the CPSC, as well as the challenges you face in selecting the most important priorities.

We want to start by emphasizing two issues involving chemicals in products that affect our and our children’s health, (1) artificial turf and playground surfaces and equipment, and (2) organohalogen flame retardants. We will also briefly discuss sport and recreational helmets, sleep-related products for infants, furniture stability, home elevators, and liquid nicotine packaging. All these issues should be CPSC priorities.

Artificial Turf and Playgrounds: Risky Chemicals and Lead

We expressed our concerns about artificial turf and playgrounds last year. Our concerns are even greater this year because of increasing evidence of lead exposure from these products, as well as from playground equipment.

Requiring testing for artificial turf, playground surfaces, and the paint used for playground equipment needs to be a priority, because children are exposed to these synthetic rubber and plastic fields and playground surfaces as well as playground equipment – and the lead and harmful chemicals they contain – day after day, year after year.

A new issue that arose in the last year is research indicating that the paint used on outdoor playground equipment contains lead. Professor Alexander Wooten from Morgan State conducted studies in Maryland that indicate that paint with lead is widely used on playground equipment, such as climbing structures, in some cases at very dangerous levels.¹ We have learned that there are no federal restrictions on lead used in outdoor paint, even for products used exclusively by young children. CPSC should investigate this issue immediately.

The rubber and plastic that make up turf and playground surfaces contain chemicals with known health risks, which are released into the air and get onto skin and clothing. Crumb rubber – whether from recycled tires or “virgin rubber”– includes endocrine disruptors such as phthalates, heavy metals such as lead and zinc, as well as other carcinogens and skin irritants such as some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).^2,3,4,5,6 Other plastic or rubber surfaces used in playgrounds also contain many of these chemicals.⁷ Moreover, the plastic grass in artificial turf also has dangerous levels of lead, PFAS, and other toxic chemicals as well. PFAS are of particular concern because they are “forever chemicals” that get into the human body and are not metabolized, accumulating over the years. Replacing tire waste with silica, zeolite, and other materials also has substantial risks.

Tire crumb is widely used as infill for artificial turf fields and also used for colorful rubber playground surfaces. In addition to the chemicals noted above, these playground surfaces contain lead and create lead dust on the surface that is invisible to the eye but that children are breathing in when they play.⁸

The CPSC is well aware that no level of lead exposure is safe for children, because lead can cause cognitive damage even at low levels. Some children are even more vulnerable than others, and this vulnerability can be difficult or even impossible to predict. Since lead has been found in tire crumb as well as new synthetic rubber, it is not surprising that numerous artificial turf fields and playgrounds made with either tire crumb or “virgin” rubber have been found to contain lead. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also warns that the “plastic grass” made with nylon or other materials also contain lead. Whether from infill or from plastic grass, the lead doesn’t just stay on the surface – it can get into clothes, on the skin, or into the air that children breathe.

While one-time or sporadic exposures are unlikely to cause long-term harm, children’s repeated exposures, especially during critical developmental periods, raise the likelihood of serious harm. There are few activities that children engage in for as many hours in their early years as those on playgrounds and playing fields.

We appreciate the CPSC’s ongoing efforts to investigate the safety of crumb rubber on playgrounds and playing fields. As your study using focus groups to examine children’s use of playgrounds and exposure to playground surfaces has shown, children who use playgrounds with artificial surfaces could be exposed to the chemicals in these surfaces.⁹ It is unfortunate that the EPA report on artificial turf (which did not include playground surfaces or playground materials) did not provide the scientific evidence needed to support their assumptions that the likely levels of exposure to dangerous chemicals was low enough that it was not likely to harm children. The EPA did not study the actual impact of the exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals on children and did not study lead exposure from synthetic playground surfaces, leaded paint used on playground equipment, or artificial turf.¹⁰

Meanwhile, we have repeatedly heard the companies that make these products and those that install them make erroneous claims at the state and local government levels, falsely stating that CPSC and other federal agencies have concluded that these materials are proven safe. As we all know, that is not correct.

We encourage you to closely evaluate the research that has been done, focusing on independently funded research of short-term and long-term safety issues. We need information that can protect our children from harm. In addition, we strongly urge you to convene a Chronic Hazard Advisory Panel (CHAP) to examine the short-term and long-term risks of different types of artificial turf used in playing fields and children’s playgrounds, including surfaces and lead paint used on climbing equipment and other materials.

In addition to the risks of lead and the long-term risks of cancer and other health problems caused by hormone disruption, these fields can cause short-term harms. Artificial turf generates dust which may exacerbate children’s asthma.^11,12 Fields heat up to temperatures far higher than ambient temperature, reaching temperatures that are more than 70 degrees warmer than nearby grass; for example, 180 degrees when the temperature is in the high 90’s and 150-170 degrees on a sunny day when the air temperature is only in the 70’s.^13,14 We have measured the temperatures ourselves and been shocked by the results. These temperatures can cause heat stress and burns.

Fields made of crumb rubber have been marketed as reducing injuries compared to grass. However, research has shown that this is not the case. We have spoken to students terribly harmed by turf burn, and studies have indicated increased risk for some types of injuries, including joint, foot, and brain injuries.^15,16,17 That is the reason that only two Major League Baseball parks use artificial turf and why the men’s soccer World Cup is now always played on grass.  In response to the demands of women soccer players, the Women’s World Cup will require grass in 2023.

Organohalogen Flame Retardants

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine issued their scoping plan to assess the hazards of organohalogen flame retardants (OFRs) last year.¹⁸ The report concluded that OFRs can be divided into subclasses on the basis of chemical structure, physicochemical properties, and predicted biologic activity. As noted in their summary of the report:

“The committee identified 14 subclasses that can be used to conduct a class-based hazard assessment and concluded that the best approach is to define subclasses as broadly as is feasible for the analysis; defining subclasses too narrowly could defeat the purpose of a class approach to hazard assessment.”

We encourage you to convene a CHAP to use this scoping plan to evaluate OFRs and to develop regulations to address OFRs in children’s products, upholstered residential furniture, mattresses/mattress pads, and the plastic casing of electronic devices. In addition, it is essential to consider current flammability standards to determine if there are changes that would improve their safety from chemical exposures as well as exposures during a fire.

OFRs are not bound to products to which they are added, so they migrate out of products and into dust. This allows them to get onto our skin and food and into the air. Because of their widespread use and the long-lasting nature of OFRs, consumers are continuously exposed to OFRs¹⁹ and many bioaccumulate in our food supply.^20,21 As a result, OFRs are present in nearly all people in the U.S.^22,23 For these reasons, CPSC should focus on the potential for hormone disruption, altered brain development, reduced ability to get and stay pregnant, and the timing of puberty.^24,25 While not all OFRs have been adequately studied to determine whether all are unsafe, those that have been sufficiently studied have proved to be harmful to health.

We share the Commission’s concerns about fire hazards as well, but there is evidence that these flame retardants may not be effective at preventing deaths in real world situations.^26,27 When the chemicals burn during a fire, the inhaled smoke is more toxic to humans, and exposures could result in serious harms, including death.

Helmets for Sport and Recreational Activities

There are up to 3.8 million concussions reported each year related to sport or recreational activities, with most reported for children and adolescents.²⁸ This number is likely an underestimate.²⁹ We urge the CPSC to focus greater attention on the need to ensure the effectiveness of helmets intended to protect against brain injuries during athletic activities. Currently, CPSC only provides guidelines for bicycle helmets, even though many organized sports and recreational activities use helmets to reduce the risk for severe head injuries, including baseball, football, snow sports, skiing/snowboarding, and climbing. Unfortunately, these helmets are not necessarily designed to prevent mild concussions.³⁰ We encourage CPSC to consider how design changes could improve the ability of helmets to prevent severe head injuries as well as mild concussions, and to develop guidelines for helmets that reduce these risks without interfering with vision or hearing or other safety concerns.

Baby Products and Products Posing Risks to Young Children

The CPSC is the major safeguard to protect infants and young children from unsafe products that are widely sold and inadequately studied. Crib bumpers and infant sleepers are two examples that have received CPSC attention but CPSC has not adequately protected families from the tragedies of infant deaths caused by these products.

There is nothing more tragic than when an infant or young child dies due to a product in the home that families or loved ones purchased because they erroneously assumed they were tested and found to be safe. The standard for these products should not be based on the number of deaths per year, but rather the 1) risk to benefit ratio of the product and 2) whether regulations or restrictions would make the product safer. In the case of crib bumpers, they have no benefit. In the case of inclined infant sleepers, products were sold that were promoted as superior to other available products but in fact had no comparative benefits and were less safe.

Furniture that tips over and home elevators are two other examples of products that have resulted in deaths of young children. In both cases, CPSC should do more to prevent the sale of products that can be redesigned or modified to make them safe.

Liquid Nicotine Packaging

We agree with other public health and consumer organizations that have urged CPSC to immediately remove from the market dangerous liquid nicotine products lacking the child-resistant packaging and flow restrictors required under the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act of 2015. The law requires the CPSC to enforce a mandatory child-resistant packaging standard for liquid nicotine containers, including the use of flow restrictors.

Liquid nicotine is a highly toxic product that can seriously harm or kill children. Since liquid nicotine can be quickly absorbed through the skin, flow restrictors are an essential safeguard to reduce the risk of nicotine poisoning in children.

Effective CPSC enforcement measures to remove noncompliant products from the market are long overdue, and that enforcement should be an immediate priority.

Final Thoughts

CPSC is the only federal agency whose mission is to protect children and adults from harmful products used in their daily life. Flame retardants and lead and many different chemicals in artificial turf and playground surfaces and equipment get into the air and dust and thus into our bodies. These chemicals tend to have greater risks for fetuses and children. There are large gaps in our knowledge about the chemicals in the products on the market, because the companies do not provide that information to the public. Ideally, the potential health impact of all of these chemicals would be evaluated in the final product before it was sold. If that doesn’t happen, CPSC must do more to identify the health risks as soon as possible after children and adults have been exposed.

Too often, the lack of independently funded and publicly available research has been used to mislead the public. Claims that “there is no evidence of harm” are misunderstood to mean “there is no harm.”

While reducing exposures to dangerous products is key, there will always be some potential for harm. Whether those harms are from the intended use of a consumer product or an unintended but foreseeable use, CPSC has a very important role to play in reducing harm. Improving the timeliness and targeting of information campaigns to warn parents and children about harmful products is also a key task of the CPSC.

References

1. Wooten, Alexander, Lead and Playgrounds, Presentation at the Takoma community forum in Washington, DC, July 29, 2019.
2. California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). Evaluation of Health Effects of Recycled Waste Wires in Playground and Track Products. Prepared for the California Integrated Waste Management Board. 2007. https://www2.calrecycle.ca.gov/Publications/Details/1206
3. Llompart M, Sanchez-Prado L, Lamas JP, et al. Hazardous organic chemicals in rubber recycled tire playgrounds and pavers. Chemosphere. 2013;90(2):423-431. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22921644/
4. Marsili L, Coppola D, Bianchi N, et al. Release of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals from rubber crumb in synthetic turf fields: Preliminary hazard assessment for athletes. Journal of Environmental and Analytical Toxicology. 2014;5(2):1133-1149. https://www.hilarispublisher.com/open-access/release-of-polycyclic-aromatic-hydrocarbons-and-heavy-metals-from-rubber-crumb-in-synthetic-turf-fields-2161-0525.1000265.pdf
5. Benoit G, Demars S. Evaluation of organic and inorganic compounds extractable by multiple methods from commercially available crumb rubber mulch. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution. 2018;229:64. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11270-018-3711-7
6. Perkins AN, Inayat-Hussain SH, Deziel NC, et al. Evaluation of potential carcinogenicity of organic chemicals in synthetic turf crumb rubber. Environmental Research. 2018;169:163–172. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6396308/
7. KimS, Yang JY, Kim HH, et al. Health risk assessment of lead ingestion exposure by particle sizes in crumb rubber on artificial turf considering bioavailability. Environmental Health and Toxicology. 2012;27:e2012005. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3278598/
8. Baca, N. Parents demand answers on playground lead in DC. wusa9.com. October 2, 2019. https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc/parent-forum-lead-playgrounds/65-45401b01-3371-436a-8f55-a364be0c07d3
9. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Summary of Playground Surfacing Focus Groups. 2018. https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/Playground_Surfacing_Focus_Group_Report_2018.pdf
10. National Center for Health Research. Children and Athletes at Play on Toxic Turf and Playgrounds. Center4research.org. http://www.center4research.org/children-athletes-play-toxic-turf-playgrounds/
11. Shalat, SL. An Evaluation of Potential Exposures to Lead and Other Metals as the Result of Aerosolized Particulate Matter from Artificial Turf Playing Fields. Submitted to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. 2011. http://www.nj.gov/dep/dsr/publications/artificial-turf-report.pdf
12. Mount Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center. Artificial Turf: A Health-Based Consumer Guide. 2017. http://icahn.mssm.edu/files/ISMMS/Assets/Departments/Environmental%20Medicine%20and%20Public%20Health/CEHC%20Consumer%20Guide%20to%20Artificial%20Turf%20May%202017.pdf
13. Serensits TJ, McNitt AS, Petrunak DM. Human health issues on synthetic turf in the USA. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part P: Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology. 2011;225(3):139-146. https://plantscience.psu.edu/research/centers/ssrc/documents/human-health-issues-on-synthetic-turf-in-the-usa.pdf
14. Penn State’s Center for Sports Surface Research. Synthetic Turf Heat Evaluation- Progress Report. 2012. http://plantscience.psu.edu/research/centers/ssrc/documents/heat-progress-report.pdf
15. Theobald P, Whitelegg L, Nokes LD, et al. The predicted risk of head injury from fall-related impacts on to third-generation artificial turf and grass soccer surfaces: A comparative biomechanical analysis. Sports Biomechanics. 2010;9(1):29-37. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20446637
16. Balazs GC, Pavey GJ, Brelin AM, et al. Risk of anterior cruciate ligament injury in athletes on synthetic playing surfaces: A systematic review. American Journal of Sports Medicine. 2015;43(7):1798-804. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25164575
17. Mack CD, Hershman EB, Anderson RB, et al. Higher rates of lower extremity injury on synthetic turf compared with natural turf among national football league athletes: Epidemiologic confirmation of a biomechanical hypothesis. American Journal of Sports Medicine. 2019;47(1):189-196. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30452873
18. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Division on Earth and Life Studies; Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology; Committee to Develop a Scoping Plan to Assess the Hazards of Organohalogen Flame Retardants. A Class Approach to Hazard Assessment of Organohalogen Flame Retardants. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US). 2019. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK545458/
19. Allgood JM, Vahid KS, Jeeva K, et al. Spatiotemporal analysis of human exposure to halogenated flame retardant chemicals. Science of the Total Environment. 2017;609:272-276. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28750230
20. Lupton SJ, Hakk H. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in US meat and poultry: 2012-13 levels, trends and estimated consumer exposures. Food Additives & Contaminants. Part A, Chemistry, Analysis, Control, Exposure & Risk Assessment. 2017;34(9):1584-1595. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28604253
21. Schecter A, Colacino J, Patel K, et al. Polybrominated diphenyl ether levels in foodstuffs collected from three locations from the United States. Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology. 2010;243(2):217-224. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19835901
22. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fourth National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, Updated Tables. 2019. http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/
23. Ospina M, Jayatilaka N, Wong LY, et al. Exposure to organophosphate flame retardant chemicals in the U.S. general population: Data from the 2013-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Environment International. 2017;110:32–41. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6261284/
24. Dishaw L, Macaulay L, Roberts SC, et al. Exposures, mechanisms, and impacts of endocrine-active flame retardants. Current Opinion in Pharmacology. 2014;19:125-133. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4252719/
25. Kim YR, Harden FA, Toms LM, et al. Health consequences of exposure to brominated flame retardants: A systematic review. Chemosphere. 2014;106:1-19. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24529398
26. Shaw SD, Blum A, Weber R, et al. Halogenated flame retardants: Do the fire safety benefits justify the risks? Reviews on Environmental Health. 2010;25:261-305. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21268442
27. McKenna S, Birtles R, Dickens K, et al. Flame retardants in UK furniture increase smoke toxicity more than they reduce fire growth rate. Chemosphere. 2018;196:429-439. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29324384
28. Halstead ME, Walter KD, Moffatt K, et al. Sport-related concussion in children and adolescents. Pediatrics. 2018;142(6):e20183074. https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/142/6/e20183074
29. Baldwin GT, Breiding MJ, Dawn Comstock R. Epidemiology of sports concussion in the United States. Handbook of Clinical Neurology. 2018;158:163-74. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30482376
30. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Which helmet for which activity? https://www.cpsc.gov/safety-education/safety-guides/sports-fitness-and-recreation-bicycles/which-helmet-which-activity
31. Perry, C. Why Inclined Baby Sleepers Are So Dangerous. Parents.com. November 8, 2019. https://www.parents.com/baby/sleep/basics/why-inclined-baby-sleepers-are-so-dangerous/

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