Play with Confidence

Safety Play is a progressive product made of recycled rubber tires that are processed into 1/2" to 3/4" size nuggets. Its coarse texture is designed to assure maximum shock absorption.

Safety Play is a great choice for riding arenas providing added safety for rider and horse.

According to the USDF:

"Footing is important. Your horse's health and performance ability depend on quality footing. Footing is to the horse as the shoe is to the athlete. Without the proper footing to give the traction and cushion, your horse's health and performance ability will deteriorate."

UnderFoot, The USDF Guide to
Arena Construction, Maintenance and Repair

Safety Play is recommended by State of Wisconsin Day Care Licensing Representatives.

Laboratory tests demonstrate that a six-inch layer of Safety Play is sufficient to cushion a child's fall from a height of twelve feet! And since 60% of children's injuries are due to falls on playground equipment, Safety Play is a good solution for those installing new equipment or desiring to replace bark chips, sand, etc.

Safety Play is Safe

IT WILL NOT

• break down
• melt in the sun
• float or blow away
• attract insects
• cause damage to mowers
• smell or retain heat
• promote weed growth
• cause injury to children

IT WILL

• keep play area neat and clean
• keep riding areas (indoors and outdoors) neat and clean
• provide a cushioned riding surface for superior shock absorption

Playgrounds can be a source of great happiness and joy for children. However, they can also be a source of injury. To minimize injuries from trips and falls, especially falls from equipment, playgrounds are being equipped with shock absorbing surfaces under and around equipment. While various materials provide shock protection, some of the most protective surfaces are being provided by scrap tire derived materials. There have been questions or concerns raised about tire derived materials being used for playground cover. This Briefing Sheet is intended to provide answers to these questions. The information provided below is taken from a variety of sources, including State & Federal agencies, laboratories contracted by State agencies, research hospitals, licensed testing companies and tire manufacturers.

Two types of rubber playground surfacing material are on the market today: loose fill and solid mats. Loose fill generally consists of chips of rubber ranging from one half inch to three quarters inch in size. All non-rubber materials are removed, and the chips are washed before being placed on the play ground. Tires do not contain asbestos nor fiberglass as reinforcement fibers.

Mats can be one of two types; pour-in-place or conventional matting. Pour-in-place rubber is a composite of ground tire rubber or other rubber that is mixed with a binding agent and poured under the playground equipment, much like concrete. Conventional mats are manufactured in a similar manner to pour-in-place material and can either be one large piece or smaller pieces that lock together to form a mat of any desired shape or color. Mats have an added advantage of being able to meet playground access requirements mandated by the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Safety Value of Scrap Tire Material as a Playground Cover:

According to the Mayo Clinic (Mayo Health O@sis, May, 1998), about 70 percent of playground injuries are a result of falls. The Consumers Product Safety Commission recommends that “hard surfacing materials, such as asphalt or concrete, are unsuitable for use under and around playground equipment of any height unless they are required as a base of for a shock absorbing unitary material such as a rubber mat.” (CPSC document 1005). The CPSC defines unitary materials as “...generally rubber mats or a combination of rubber-like materials held in place by a binder that may be pour in place at the playground site and cures to form a unitary shock absorbing surface.” (CPSC document 1005).

Shock Attenuation:

The Mayo Clinic recommendation is to use playground mating/flooring that "gives", such as rubber. The State of Illinois conducted a direct comparison between scrap tire rubber and other loose fill playground surfacing materials at a depth of six inches. It is reported that wire-free scrap tire chips have roughly twice the cushioning effect of other material. (Report to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, January 1994).

Critical Heights for a 6 Inch Uncompressed Layer*

Wood Mulch	7 Feet
Fine Sand	5 Feet
Medium Gravel	5 Feet
Tire Chips	12 Feet

Tire chip data from the Illinois Department of Energy & Natural Resources. Measured in accordance with ASTM F12-93 and ASTM F355-86. Data on other materials from U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, CPSC Document 1005.

*According to the testing criteria, the higher the height, the safer the material.

Flammability:

Tire chips were tested in 1995 in accordance with the Federal Hazardous Substance Act (16 CFR 1500.44) to determine whether this material would be considered “flammable” (a material is considered flammable if it ignites and burns with a self-sustained flame at a rate greater than 0.1 inches per second along its major axis).

Burn Length (inches)	Time (seconds)	Burn Rate (inches/second)
0.5	60.0	0.01
0.1	60.0	0.001
0.4	60.0	0.01
0.4	60.0	0.01

From the test results it was concluded that scrap tire material is considered non-flammable.

Other Advantages of Wire-Free Scrap Tire Chips:

• Clean and non-toxic
• Does not produce toxic leachate
• Resilient
• Does not attract or maintain moisture
• Economical, lasts for years
• Reduces dust and mud around playing area
• Does not attract cats, dogs, rodents or insects
• Will not rot or decay
• Not susceptible to reduced performance due to rainy weather or freezing temperatures

What if a Child Swallows a Rubber Chip?

In 1994 the Maryland Environmental Services (MES) put this question to a series of tests. At the MES request, a testing laboratory subjected ¾ inch pieces of tire chips to hydrochloric acid (stomach acid). “Visual examination of insoluble residue appeared to indicate only fibrous reinforcing strands were dissolved by the hydrochloric acid. The tire rubber did not appear to be affected in any way; i.e. chalking, cracking, spauling, fracturing, etc.” (PSI report No. 486-40013-001). What does this mean? If a piece of rubber is swallowed, it should not cause any acute or chronic problems. Short-term issues, such as an upset stomach will be a function of the amount of rubber swallowed. As to the fate of the rubber chips swallowed, they are eventually evacuated from the body, just like any other non-digestible material.

Additional Information:

Any of the above referenced documents may be obtained from the RMAl at no charge. For further information on playground safety, contact the Consumers Product Safety Commission, Washington. DC 20207; http://www.cpsc.gov. We suggest obtaining their publication on Playground Surfacing Materials, CPSC Document #1005.

RMA would like to thank the following contributors:

American Tire Recyclers
The State of Illinois
The State of Maryland

Toxicity

Rubber mulch is considered non-toxic. MSDS Sheets for key components available upon request. Based on Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) conducted on scrap tire chips (method 1311 of USEPA), the following trace metal elements were determined to be significantly lower than regulatory threshold limits: Arsenic (As), Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr), Lead (Lb), Selenium (Sc), and Silver (Ag). Source: Criteria of Selecting Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) and Synthetic Precipitation Leaching Procedure (SPLP) Tests to Characterize Special Wastes, Dr. Chih-Shin Shieh, Florida Institute of Technology, June 30, 2001 .Oral ingestion is deemed to be low in overall hazard because ingestion of tire crumb on the ground is not likely, and the gastrointestinal tract is unlikely to be efficient in extracting toxic chemicals from tire crumb. Tire crumb does not contain chemicals with high vapor pressures; thus, exposure via inhalation is deemed inconsequential and the resulting hazard negligible. Dermal exposure is deemed to be unlikely and therefore to present low overall hazard. A carrier solvent more efficient than water would be needed to extract toxic chemicals from tire crumb in quantity, and a suitable non-polar vehicle would be required to penetrate protective skin layers for significant absorption. This was deemed implausible in a playground situation. Cancer hazard as measured by relevant in vitro predictive assays, was deemed negative. Ingestion of small amounts of tire crumb by small children will not result in an unacceptable hazard of contracting cancer. Source: Toxicological Evaluation for the Hazard Assessment of Tire Crumb for Use in Public Playgrounds, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 2003.In 1994 the Maryland Environmental Services (MES) sent ¾ inch pieces of tire chips to a testing laboratory to be tested with hydrochloric acid (stomach acid). "Visual examination of insoluble residue appeared to indicate only fibrous reinforcing strands were dissolved by the hydrochloric acid. The tire rubber did not appear to be affected in any way; i.e. chalking, cracking, spauling, fracturing, etc." (PSI report No. 486-40013-001). Therefore, if a piece of rubber is swallowed, it should not cause any acute or chronic problems. Short-term issues, such as an upset stomach will be a function of the amount of rubber swallowed. As to the fate of the rubber chips swallowed, they are eventually evacuated from the body, just like any other non-digestible material.
Source: RubberManufacturers Association www.rma.org/scrap_tires/scrap_tire_markets/playgrounduse.cfm

Leaching:

A number of studies have been done to determine the potential for leaching from recycled scrap tires and recycled tire products. Increased levels of zinc and iron were found in soil tilled with raw crumb rubber particles (¼” and less) when tested annually for 4 years. The amounts detected were below levels of concern and posed no hazards to water quality. Additionally no toxicity to turf grass was observed in these studies. Source: Top Dressing with Crumb Rubber on Athletic Fields, Dr. J.N. Rogers, III and J.T. Vanini, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Michigan State University , 1994.Zinc that had leached from scrap tires was determined not to pose any potential harm to the environment. Source: Identification of Tire Leachate Toxicants and A Risk Assessment of Water Quality Effects Using Tire Reefs in Canals, Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 578-581, Environmental Canada, 1994.Some volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds were identified in scrap tire leachates using the TCLP test. Reported levels are far below regulatory limits:

	Reported Value ug/L	Regulatory Limit ug/L
Carbon disulfide	67	14,400
Methyl ethyl ketone	21	7,200
Toluene	190	14,000
Phenol	46	14,400

Source: A Report on the Use of Shredded Scrap Tires in On-Site Sewage Disposal Systems, Department of Environmental Conservation, State of Vermont, Brattleboro, VT, Envirologic, Inc. 1990.Chemicals leaching from relative fresh tire crumb may present a moderate toxic threat to aquatic species if the runoff is not diluted. However, this toxic activity is quickly degraded by natural processes, presumably by conversion of the chemicals responsible to nontoxic products. Conditions likely to produce runoff, such as rain and snowmelt, are also likely to dilute the runoff in receiving sewers, bodies of water, and groundwater by considerable volumes. Given that undiluted runoff is not likely and that 3 months is an outside estimate of the duration of toxicity, it is doubtful that tire crumb would present a significant risk of contamination in receiving surface waters or groundwater. Source: Toxicological Evaluation for the Hazard Assessment of Tire Crumb for Use in Public Playgrounds, Journal of the Air & Waste ManagementAssociation, 2003.

Flammability:

Scrap tire material is considered non-flammable based on test results from 1995 in accordance with the Federal Hazardous Substance Act (16 CFR 1500.44). A material is considered flammable if it ignites and burns with a self sustaining flame greater than 0.1 inches per second along its major axis.

Colorfastness:

Colorfastness of product has been tested under extreme circumstances and is considered by manufacturer to be fade resistant.

Safety Ratings:

Rubber Bark complies with ASTM F1292-99 as was tested by Northwest Laboratories of Seattle, Incorporated – May 26, 2004

Product	Install Depth	Critical Fall Height
Rubber Mulch	4” (Four inches)	9’ (Nine feet)

With proper installation and maintenance, Rubber mulch will reduce fall injuries in playgrounds. However, PRM Enterprises, LLC and any of its affiliates or subsidiaries make no warranty of the safety and colorfastness of this product.