| Title |
Synthetic Turf Fields, Crumb Rubber, and Alleged Cancer Risk
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Sports Medicine, May 2017
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s40279-017-0735-x |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Archie Bleyer |
| Abstract |
Most synthetic turf fields have crumb rubber interspersed among the simulated grass fibers to reduce athletic injuries by allowing users to turn and slide more readily as they play sports or exercise on the fields. Recently, the crumbs have been implicated in causing cancer in adolescents and young adults who use the fields, particularly lymphoma and primarily in soccer goalkeepers. This concern has led to the initiation of large-scale studies by local and federal governments that are expected to take years to complete. Meanwhile, should the existing synthetic turf fields with crumb rubber be avoided? What should parents, players, coaches, school administrators, and playground developers do? What should sports medicine specialists and other health professionals recommend? Use grass fields when weather and field conditions permit? Exercise indoors? Three basic premises regarding the nature of the reported cancers, the latency of exposure to environmental causes of cancer to the development of clinically detectable cancer, and the rarity of environmental causation of cancer in children, adolescents, and young adults suggest otherwise. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 437 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 75 | 17% |
| United Kingdom | 33 | 8% |
| Canada | 11 | 3% |
| Malaysia | 6 | 1% |
| India | 6 | 1% |
| Spain | 4 | <1% |
| Australia | 3 | <1% |
| Argentina | 3 | <1% |
| Ireland | 3 | <1% |
| Other | 33 | 8% |
| Unknown | 260 | 59% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 396 | 91% |
| Scientists | 19 | 4% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 16 | 4% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 6 | 1% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 78 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 78 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Bachelor | 12 | 15% |
| Student > Master | 9 | 12% |
| Researcher | 8 | 10% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 8 | 10% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 3 | 4% |
| Other | 14 | 18% |
| Unknown | 24 | 31% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Sports and Recreations | 11 | 14% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 7 | 9% |
| Environmental Science | 6 | 8% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 5 | 6% |
| Chemistry | 4 | 5% |
| Other | 17 | 22% |
| Unknown | 28 | 36% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 311. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 April 2024.
All research outputs
#111,889
of 25,770,491 outputs
Outputs from Sports Medicine
#96
of 2,898 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#2,462
of 326,489 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Sports Medicine
#2
of 32 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,770,491 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,898 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 57.2. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 326,489 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 32 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.