Figure 2.
Average concentrations (n=3) in crumb rubber samples. Each sample was composited from 4 locations per field, and analyzed in triplicate. Stock crumb rubber was pulled from stock and has never been applied to fields. It is important to note that with construction application of crumb rubber at a typical rate of 10 – 15 kg/m2, a full-sized artificial turf soccer field will contain between 75,000 and 112,500 kg of crumb rubber at time of installation. (Calculated from https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/outdoors/synthetic_turf/crumb-rubber_infilled/docs/fact_sheet.pdf) Post-installation “refill” often involves 5 gallon buckets of material manually added to high-traffic areas. Each bucket will add only fractions of a percent of the total crumb rubber mass. More often facilities will use “top-dresser” machinery intended to redistribute existing infill and only add sparingly. It is unlikely that addition of small amounts of never-deployed crumb will significantly change the chemical emission profile of an existing field.