Rubber Designs greenhouse and gardening supplies

The reports, as CPSC published them

1. Hurt, care not known

   Made Aug 1, 2023 · , sent to the company Aug 3, 2023 · , published by CPSC Aug 17, 2023

   The product, in the report: This was mixed with urethane Below is the description from the construction specifications for our school: Poured in Place Resilient Surfacing: Shall be constructed of a liquid urethane binder and a sponger rubber mulch product. 2. Binder Component shall be a stable urethane binder. Product # 05 02 Aromatic Urethane binder, manufactured by Rubber Designs. 3. Mix Rate: shall be 10 lbs of binder and 50 lbs of rubber mulch (1/2 of each color to be used).

   My child’s elementary school made campus improvements during the summer of 2022. One of these changes was adding a material that consists of chunky [REDACTED] and urethane as a binder. The product combination is not sold together. Rather, the contractor mixes the two materials and then lays it down over a gravel base. [REDACTED] (the company) does not warranty the mixture. This was installed in two locations on campus and also in at least one other location in a neighboring elementary school in the district. The material smelled really bad when installed. The outdoor space gets especially hot in one location on campus where it was installed and the location is directly outside of two classrooms and nearby several others. The teachers tend to leave their doors open for extra air flow so the smell travelled into the classrooms as well. Now a year later it still smells really badly. The odor burns my nostrils and a student recently told his mom that it made him nauseous. My own daughter said it gave her a headache. The school district took no action when I alerted them and instead said that it was installed according to specifications from the landscape designer. There was no indication that they would cover it or otherwise try to mitigate the smell. Besides the smell though there is the fact that the chunks of rubber fall off the material. The kids were playing with it in another space where it was installed - our school garden. The two areas are labelled as outdoor classroom space so they are meant to be used by kids to spend time there. One space, the hotter one, is outside of the STEAM lab classroom. The windows of this classroom face the rubber area as well. The other area is in the school garden where kids come during lunch time to do gardening activities and the rubber area has tree stumps for sitting when the area eventually gets used for more classroom related activities. I have recorded the temperature of these surfaces as well and on a 67 degree day, the surface was 135 degrees. I haven’t checked the temperatures in hotter weather. Unfortunately, I do not know if other kids have reported the smell or feeling ill from the smell. I am a parent volunteer. I want to report this product because I do not think it is an acceptable smell for the school kids and teachers to have to inhale for hours in a day particularly those closer to the area of the hotter STEAM lab yard. And it really impedes nature learning in the garden when we are talking about environmental issues or respecting nature and we can smell this rubber even when not on the surface itself. I was especially concerned when another student actually told his mom how he felt when he smelled it. He is a 6th grader now so older than the kids who would be at the elementary school. I also wanted to report this product because I cannot believe that this is allowed in school yards with no direction or oversight other than was it properly installed. When I asked a Children’s Environmental Health department at [REDACTED], they gave me a list of things the school could do to mitigate the smell and reduce exposure for the kids. None of those mitigation measures were or are happening.

   In the garden, this material is next to an old large oak tree. It is now accumulating acorns and other tree debris. When it was first installed, there were more trees nearby providing a bit more shade but those trees fell in a storm early this year and now the sun is heating the rubber over more surface area from around 10 onward.

   Model

   see above description

   Where

   Los Gatos, California: School

   Who was involved

   Female

   The reporter’s relation to them

   Unspecified

   As this report names them

   Brand Rubber Designs, made or sold by Rubber Designs LLC

   How badly, in CPSC’s words

   Injury, Level of care not known

CPSC’s disclaimer

Sources