Human Health Risks Attributable to Tyre-Derived Crumb Rubber-A Literature Review on Artificial Turfs and Playgrounds

Tyre granule-based artificial turf surfaces are currently a matter of debate. Most of the Agencies involved in environmental and health protection have stated a negligible/virtually negligible risk to health and have issued a general call for caution concerning the possible presence of emerging risks. The concern for the potential detrimental effect, especially in children, has attracted significant resonance since the beginning of the use of these surfaces. This review aims to describe the current knowledge in both scientific and grey literature concerning the possible adverse risks to health due to human exposure to artificial turf or playgrounds with tyre-derived crumb rubber. We included 20 original research articles and 13 reports published between 2006 and 2025. The current knowledge about the topic was revealed to be still highly fragmentary, with stark differences in methodological approaches and theoretical assumptions used in the risk assessment. However, most of the research and reports are consistent in their results, assessing, in the majority of cases, a low/negligible risk for both professional and recreational players, even though some chemicals were able to leach or volatilise and, in some cases, the estimated risk was higher than the reference threshold conventionally applied for the risk assessment method employed.