Presence of toxic and hazardous substances in recycled rubber surfaces; environmental distribution and toxicological implications

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the study of recycled tire rubber employed as infill in artificial turf football pitches or as flooring in children's playgrounds, among other uses. Different families of chemical compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, plasticisers, antioxidants and vulcanisation additives were determined in different recycled tire rubber matrices. In addition, the diffusion of these substances into the environment (air and water) and the potential bioaccessibility via oral ingestion were studied. For this purpose, different analytical methodologies were developed and validated. Due to the wide variety of the studied samples, different simple and sustainable sample preparation techniques were employed prior to analysis by gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry.