Home / News
Authorities continue investigations after children across the country reported feeling unwell after playing on synthetic surfaces. Sun Xiaochen reports.
While excavators dismantled the synthetic surface at the Baiyunlu campus of Beijing No 2 Experimental Primary School on Sunday, a group of parents watched carefully, despite the noise of machinery, the swirling dust and the stench of plastic debris.
Like the surface of the playground, the parents' trust in the school and local educational authority has been shredded as a result of a recent health scare related to the facility, according to one parent, the mother of a fourth-grader, who preferred not to be named.
She is one of dozens of parents who claim their children were poisoned by toxic substances emitted by a synthetic running track that was laid last year. They cited a range of symptoms including nosebleeds, coughs and skin allergies that have affected at least 40 students since April.
"Removing the running surface is easy but are they (the authorities) determined to dig deeper to uncover the real reasons for the problem and those who should be held accountable? We doubt it," she said.
The claims followed a number of incidents in which students have been left feeling unwell after exposure to potentially toxic artificial sports fields at schools in at least 15 cities, according to a Xinhua News Agency report.
However, on June 14, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission announced that a follow-up air quality test conducted by the China National Environmental Monitoring Center indicated that the campus facilities adhered to the quality standards for national environmental monitoring and synthetic playgrounds.
Although six parents' representatives witnessed the tests, along with a third-party notary agency, some parents remain skeptical. "It's hard to believe the results went against the actual illnesses that so many children had at the same time, all with similar symptoms. Something must be wrong," a parent surnamed Chen told Beijing News on June 15.
In response, the Beijing Education Commission ordered an inspection of all synthetic sports fields on campuses, and suspended construction of playgrounds until new guidelines are formulated.
The commission said it will work with quality-control and environmental protection departments and professional organizations to draft and implement tougher, more-detailed guidelines for the manufacture, construction and assessment of playgrounds to guarantee safe use.
"Our priority is the children's health. If the investigation concludes that the playground materials contain toxic chemicals, we will track down those responsible," said Ding Dawei, director of the commission's branch in the Xicheng district.
Loopholes
Experts said synthetic running tracks are used across the world, from kindergartens to Olympic stadiums, and they are hazard-free providing they are manufactured and laid in accordance with specific chemical processes and quality-control standards.
Chen Jianding, a professor of materials engineering at East China University of Science and Technology, said improper processing and the use of cheap additives to improve surface resilience could result in an excess of free toluene diisocyanate, an organic compound used in the production of polyurethane foams, that can be toxic to humans.
He said the compound form of TDI, as used in running tracks, has low toxicity.
The national quality standard for synthetic playground surfaces sets no strict limits on the amount of free TDI that can be used and does not specify the types and concentrations of glues and plasticizers, which can also be toxic if mixed incorrectly.
Zhang Jinliang, an environmental safety researcher at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, said the lack of specifications for relevant chemicals in the air-quality monitoring standard means toxins exist even in environments classified as safe after testing.
"This explains most of the cases where post-construction air-quality tests were unable to detect the real toxins affecting students' health on low-quality rubber tracks," she said.
Supervision urged
Industry insiders say the loopholes in standards and the lack of transparent supervision in the bidding process for school construction projects have opened a door for unscrupulous contractors to make a profit at the expense of students' safety.
The cost of safe, high-quality processed surfaces is about 300 yuan ($46) per square meter, according to Liu Haipeng, an official with the National Sports Facility Standardization Committee: "But some manufacturers offer much cheaper products containing excessive amounts of hazardous chemicals to lure education authorities and schools with low budgets."
Liu estimated that about 3,000 private materials manufacturers are operating without the necessary technical certificates, accounting for almost half the market share of the synthetic ground-surface industry.
Liu Dongwei, chief architect at the China Architecture Design and Research Group, urged stricter scrutiny of the bidding processes for such projects.
"Whoever offers the lowest price wins the bid, regardless of quality. It's a common practice. To ensure better quality, the higher-level authorities should strengthen supervision of local education departments in the bidding process, along with the assessment of contractors' qualifications," he said.
Pilot regional guideline implemented
Last month, the education commission of Shenzhen, Guangdong province, implemented a new set of standards to cover the bidding process, raw material production, installation and post-construction testing of synthetic sports fields.
It was the first time a city in China had imposed a regional rule related to the issue that is tougher than the current national guidelines.
The new rule came in response to a government investigation which discovered that 11 schools in the city used low-quality facilities that contained excessive toxic chemicals. Three of the 11 sites have now been dug up.
According to the Shenzhen Institute of Building Research, which jointly drafted the standards, the new guideline has added seven categories to its national counterpart, including quality control of chemicals in raw materials, post-construction testing and project supervision.
"However, this is a trial measure that we have to implement before the new national standards to guarantee students' health. The guideline took notice of similar rules overseas and should be updated regularly, given the rising use of new, potentially toxic, materials," said Ren Jun, the institute's chief engineer.
