Group digs up dirt on swing set -- chicagotribune.com: "In the latest episode of Life Under the Microscope, the White House playground for Sasha, Malia and friends is stirring controversy. An environmental health group is contending that the playground's ground-up-tire mulch poses a health risk.
'This is not a material that children should be playing on,' wrote Nancy Alderman, president of Environment and Human Health Inc., which calls itself a 'non-profit organization composed of doctors, public health professionals and policy experts ... dedicated to protecting human health from environmental harms.'
The group said an analysis of ground-up tires done by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station found a carcinogen as well as chemicals that irritate the skin, eyes and mucous membranes."
----------
I have never heard of this problem before, although I have noticed how hot these materials get. My kids have spent countless hours on public playgrounds made of ground up tires. It seems odd that a President of the US can follow the recommendations of the National Recreation and Park Association and then be told that he is responsible for building The Doomsday Playground.
1 comment:
I hadn't heard of this problem either. Playgrounds in our area usually have a solid rubbery pad under them rather than these grated tire thingies (except for public school playgrounds--they have sand, I presume because it's cheaper). EPCOT, however, uses this grated tire mulch on its playgrounds, and I've long admired it. If we could have afforded it, we'd have installed it at our house, rather than the pine-bark mulch we have.
Anyway, all these playground substrates absolutely can "irritate the skin, eyes and mucous membranes." Fortunately, most kids spend more time suspended on the playground equipment than they do wallowing in the mulch.
Post a Comment