This is my fifth diary on the issue of rubber mulch, which has become part of the White House playscape, where Sasha and Malia Obama and their friends play.
Their playground surface was made from 1,400 used tires. The tires were ground up and dyed green and called rubber mulch.
Rubber mulch is not good for children or gardens because ground up rubber tires have lots of toxins in them.
My last diary told you that the EPA was investigating rubber mulch to see if the contaminants it contained might make your children sick. Well, the EPA lied about that study.
In fact, they're NOT conducting air and surface sampling. They NEVER have. They've only look at the literature - studies (mostly industry-funded studies) that others have done.
President and Mrs. Obama -
What GOOD is your organic garden, if the playground where your children and their friends play, which sits near that garden, is HURTING THEM?
A public advocacy group called Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) released information yesterday that they obtained from the EPA.
Contrary to its public statements, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is not conducting studies on potential health effects to children from contact with shredded tires on playgrounds, according to correspondence released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Despite serious concerns raised by its own scientists about health risks to children, the agency continues to endorse use of ground rubber (called "tire crumb"), on playgrounds without examining the extent of childhood exposure from ingestion or inhalation of toxic chemicals found within tires.
Earlier this year, PEER used FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests to obtain an internal memo from the EPA that indicated the EPA was concerned about recycled rubber that is being used in your children's playground and playgrounds and synthetic turf fields all over the world, Mr. and Mrs. President. The EPA responded at that time that they were investigating and would release information soon -
"One of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s top priorities is protection of children from harmful environmental exposures....In response to possible concerns raised by one of our regional offices, EPA initiated a limited field study to assess the potential for exposure to constituents of potential health concern in playgrounds and synthetic turf athletic fields constructed with tire crumb. We hope to release the study results later this summer...."
Those study results were never released - BECAUSE THEY DON'T EXIST.
The EPA was compelled to tell PEER that NO STUDY RESULTS EXIST.
In July, PEER submitted another FOIA request for a copy of that study and any other "scientific assessments, studies or field monitoring by EPA personnel or contractors concerning possible health effects from use of recycled tire crumbs in playgrounds." In a final answer to that FOIA dated September 11, 2009, Eric Wachter, director of the EPA Office of the Executive Secretariat conceded:
"The Agency has not conducted research to evaluate children's ‘health effects’ from tire crumb constituents."
Wachter wrote that EPA only did a "literature review" in 2008 and after that began a "very limited methods evaluation study" of "available monitoring methods for characterizing environmental contaminant concentrations at those recreational fields" but has not yet finished even that.
So Mr. and Mrs. President, your children are playing on a surface that our government recommends and even requires, in the case of Head Start programs, for children's playgrounds.
All our children are playing on a surface on synthetic turf fields that contain crumb rubber that has NEVER BEEN PROVEN SAFE BY THE EPA and, in fact, that is being proven a cause for real concern by independent scientists in several states.
WHY IS THIS OKAY FOR YOU OR FOR ANY OF US?
It's not okay that the EPA lied to any of us, dear Obamas. Such lies do not engender trust and they indicate that the EPA is, in fact, broken.
I hope you will ask for an investigation into this matter and that while such an investigation is being undertaken, that you will ask the EPA to pull its endorsement of the use of recycled rubber in our playgrounds, playing fields, gardens, and yards, and issue a health advisory.
Until we know why the EPA lied to you and to all of us, and what is in recycled rubber that might hurt children, your kids and ours should simply not be playing on it.
That's just plain common sense.