Between The Lines - Gaboury Benoit: Concern Grows Over Health Hazards Linked with Recycled Tires Used in Playgrounds and Athletic Fields (Week Ending Oct. 9, 2015)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

Thank you for donating

If you've made a donation and wish to receive thank you gifts for your donation, be sure to send us your mailing address via our Contact form.

See our thank you gifts for your donation.

The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

Subscribe to our Weekly Summary & receive our FREE Resist Trump window cling

(Car window cling)

Email us with your mailing address at contact@btlonline.org to receive our "Resist Trump/Resist Hate" car window cling!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Subscribe to Counterpoint bulletins via our subscriptions page.

BTL Blog

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Special Programming

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Progressive Resources

A compilation of activist and news sites with a progressive point of view

Share this content:

|

Subscribe to BTL

Podcasts: direct or via iTunes

Subscribe to Program Summaries, Interview Transcripts or Counterpoint via email or RSS feed

If you have other questions regarding subscriptions, feeds or podcasts/mp3s go to our Audio Help page.

Between The Lines Blog

Stay connected to BTL

Learn how to support our efforts!

Tweets by @BTLRadioNews

Concern Grows Over Health Hazards Linked with Recycled Tires Used in Playgrounds and Athletic Fields

Posted Sept. 30, 2015

Interview with Gaboury Benoit, chemist and professor at the Yale School of Forestry, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

In June, a Connecticut-based group called Environment and Human Health received a grant to fund a study of the chemical compounds in ground-up rubber tires, called crumb rubber. The material is increasingly used in place of wood chips or other protective coverings in playgrounds, and as the backing for artificial turf, which is now widely used on high school, college and professional athletic fields.

The study raised grave concerns, both for the hazardous chemicals found in the rubber and other compounds that have not yet been identified. Back in 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency indicated that 37 million rubber tires had been transformed into crumb rubber for various uses, out of the 290 million scrap tires that otherwise littered the landscape or were dumped into tire ponds, attracting mosquitoes and rats. Today, according to the EPA, 80 percent of scrap tires are now repurposed, mainly as fuel in highway projects or as crumb rubber for various uses. Neither the EPA nor any state health departments have raised the alarm about crumb rubber's potential hazards.

Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Gaboury Benoit, a chemist and professor at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, who talks about the toxic materials he's found in crumb rubber and explains why he's concerned.

GABOURY BENOIT: There's concern because ground tires are being used in a number of places where a lot of people are exposed to them, and especially younger people, so, kids' playgrounds and athletic fields are getting thousands and thousands of these chopped up tires. And we know there are a lot of undesirable toxic substances that go into the manufacture of the tires and the question is, can any of those be extracted and is there a risk of the populations being exposed to them? The procedure that we used extracted close to a hundred different organic compounds, and we ourselves don't do testing of their chemical nature, but that's already been done in a number of different studies, and what we found is that a large number of them are classified either as carcinogenic or as irritants of some kind, including respiratory irritants and those are ones that can be harmful to folks with asthma. Although many of the compounds have been tested for their toxicity, many have not, surprisingly, and so on those we simply have to say we're not sure what the effects might be, but at least a large subset of them have been measured and have been shown to be either carcinogenic or irritating.

BETWEEN THE LINES: I recently saw a memo from the Environmental Protection Agency published in 2007 that was promoting recycling of tires as a positive for the environment. It actually specifically mentioned use of ground rubber, or crumb rubber, in playgrounds, playing fields and as garden mulch. Do you know if that’s still happening?

GABOURY BENOIT: As far as I know they are continuing to promote it, and they do have a serious problem on their hands because – I forget the exact numbers – but there are millions of tires which go to waste every year. I think I recently saw that something like 80 percent of them are being recycled in some way, and that may seems like a good thing until you realize that these recycled uses are not permanent, so let’s say you do put it in an athletic field. After a number of years, it physically starts to degrade and has to be removed. And all of that material is not being recycled again, it’s just being discarded. So you’re moving from discarding tires to discarding recycled tires. So you’re not really getting rid of the problem by this recycling.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Are there any warning labels on crumb rubber that’s sold for home or school use?

GABOURY BENOIT: Several of the samples that we tested, we just went to the local big box hardware/lumber yard and just bought bags of the stuff. The bags don’t have a lot of information on them except I think in some cases they sort of trumpeted the fact they were helping the environment by recycling tires, but there were no warnings whatever. That surprised me a little bit, but I have no idea what the regulations are in regard to something like that. But no, there’s no warning, nothing about exposure for children, and it’s sold as mulch and then of course there’s also a risk, depending on where you put it, that the stuff is leaching out and getting into garden crops that people may have.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Gaboury Benoit, I recently took my 3-year-old granddaughter to one of these places where kids can pretend to be doctors or policeman or farmers, and there was a box in the farmyard filled with crumb rubber, as if it was soil to plant plastic vegetables in. I spoke to the CEO there, and she said the crumb rubber is washed first, so she didn't think it was hazardous.

GABOURY BENOIT: Well, I'm not sure how they're cleaning them. I suspect they're washing them with surfactants, which will indeed remove stuff from their surface, because if you think about going out and picking up a used tire, your hands would be covered with all sorts of stuff, they'd be black, and you can get rid of that stuff because you obviously don't want your kids playing in some kind of a sandbox and come out looking like they're covered with dirt. However, that superficial dirt is only going to be there temporarily, and when you wash them you're not washing the interior of the material, and stuff can get out of it. We're not at that point yet, but we'll be doing measurements – and others have done this in the past – where we look at the gases that come off of the tire. You mentioned that they stink, and that's just our nose being able to detect some subset of the compounds that come out. And we're going to be able to identify those and quantify them. So washing is a first minimum step that you'd want to take, but ... was this actually like a sandbox where they had the stuff in there and the kids were playing in it as if it were sand or something? I've never heard of that use and that one seems especially undesirable. Generally, the stuff is stabilized a little bit, because it's either in some kind of a mat or a subsurface floor like Astroturf or simulated grass. But in this stuff, the kids are going to be playing right in it. I don't know if you know, but there's a condition called pica that a lot of kids have where they will ingest stuff that's not really food and so kids are known to eat dirt and I'm sure they're going to be eating this stuff as well. That's really terrible; I don't care if it's washed or not; I don't think people want their kids eating ground-up tires.

For more information, see "Study Led By Gaboury Benoit Looks at Chemicals in Synthetic Playing Surfaces," Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science, July 7, 2015.