Artificial turf infill associated with systematic toxicity in an amniote vertebrate

Abstract

Artificial athletic turf containing crumb rubber (CR) from shredded tires is a growing environmental and public health concern. However, the associated health risk is unknown due to the lack of toxicity data for higher vertebrates. We evaluated the toxic effects of CR in a developing amniote vertebrate embryo. CR water leachate was administered to fertilized chicken eggs via different exposure routes, i.e., coating by dropping CR leachate on the eggshell; dipping the eggs into CR leachate; microinjecting CR leachate into the air cell or yolk. After 3 or 7 d of incubation, embryonic morphology, organ development, physiology, and molecular pathways were measured. The results showed that CR leachate injected into the yolk caused mild to severe developmental malformations, reduced growth, and specifically impaired the development of the brain and cardiovascular system, which were associated with gene dysregulation in aryl hydrocarbon receptor, stress-response, and thyroid hormone pathways. The observed systematic effects were probably due to a complex mixture of toxic chemicals leaching from CR, such as metals (e.g., Zn, Cr, Pb) and amines (e.g., benzothiazole). This study points to a need to closely examine the potential regulation of the use of CR on playgrounds and artificial fields.

Artificial Turf Infill: A Comparative Assessment of Chemical Contents

“…42 Another study exposed chicken embryos to tire crumb leachate and documented a variety of adverse effects from exposure to the chemical mixture. 43 For illustrative purposes, additional detail is provided here on selected chemical categories.…”

Dysbiosis in the Gut Microbiota of Soil Fauna Explains the Toxicity of Tire Tread Particles

“…For example, TP leachate exposure caused severe development malformation of amniote vertebrate. 45 TP Amendment Decreased the Survival and Reproduction Rate of Worms. TP exposure had a dose-dependent effect on the reproduction of worms (Figures 1 and S5).…”

Occurrences of Tire Rubber-Derived Contaminants in Cold-Climate Urban Runoff

“…Multiple studies have reported toxic potency of tire rubber leachate to algae, anthropods, molluscs, fish, − and vertebrate embryos . The rubber vulcanizing agent, N,N′-diphenylguanidine (DPG) has been reported to be a highly abundant feature identified by nontarget analysis in road runoff. , DPG has measured acute (48 h LC 50 ) and chronic (21 day) toxicities of 17 and 0.6 mg L –1 (daphnia) .…”