NEWS
Rubber crumb leaches environmental toxins
Chicken embryo model allows researchers to assess toxicity of environmental pollutants
New research, spearheaded by scientists at McGill University, reports on exposing chicken embryos - a model of higher vertebrate development - to leachate from rubber crumb used, for example, in artificial turf infill, to assess the toxicity of environmental pollutants contained in such material.
The new study, published in the journal PNAS, by a team of scientists from McGill’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Redpath Museum and Health Canada, is the first to use chicken eggs as a comprehensive model system for testing environmental toxins.
Nathalie Tufenkji, co-senior author of the new study and a professor in McGill’s Department of Chemical Engineering, said the use of a “higher vertebrate” testing model has the advantage of being able to measure system-wide effects of environmental toxins, something for which previous models used to test the toxicity of crumb rubber - such as algae, water fleas, zebra fish and mammalian cell cultures- fell short.
“We were curious to understand what impact the rubber crumb might have on the environment and wildlife in general,” Tufenkji said. “Precipitation on outdoor fields containing rubber crumb might lead to leaching of chemicals into the environment, and how those chemicals may interact with vertebrate development and health are unknown.”
This multi-disciplinary effort demonstrated that the early development of chicken embryos is compromised when eggs are exposed to small amounts of water in which rubber crumbs soaked for seven days. When directly injected into the egg yolks, this leachate caused mild to severe malformations, including impaired development of the brain and the cardiovascular system.
Hans Larsson, a professor at McGill’s Redpath Museum, says that their new chicken embryo model will provide useful information about how toxins disrupt embryo development of such a complex animal.
“Chicken eggs are, relatively speaking, closely related to mammals, including humans,” said Larsson, the study’s other co-senior investigator. “Their genome, anatomy and development are closer to ours than the other standard models, so using them as a test system for environmental toxins may be the most efficient way to explore how these toxins might potentially affect human health.”
Tufenkji and Larsson’s teams now plan to further assess what kind of chemicals are released from rubber crumb under natural conditions in different environmental scenarios.
“We would like to test leachate from naturally weathered rubber crumb and track its potential effects on chicken embryo development,” said Tufenkji.
This work received financial support from the Canada Research Chairs program, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (Integrated Quantitative Biology Initiative).
Jim Nedin wins 2019 Edwin Budding Award
Jim Nedin, a consultant for Turf Industry Service Business Optimization in York, Pa., is the winner of the 2019 Edwin Budding Award from GCSAA.
The Edwin Budding Award, named for the inventor of the lawn mower, is given annually to an equipment manager or related innovator, technician, educator or engineer who has made a significant impact in the golf and turf business.
Nedin has been involved in the turf industry for more than forty years. He began his career as a golf course superintendent in the early 1970s and has taught turf industry- related seminars for more than thirty years. Nedin has provided technical support for a multitude of state, regional, national and international golf tournaments.
Ross MacFarlane, a greenkeeper at The Carrick, managed to snap the cheeky deer with its tongue out on a visit earlier this year, and entered it in a competition ran by the Kingshouse Hotel - with more than 3,000 people picking Ross's work as their favourite from hundreds of entries.
And its popularity has come as a surprise to Ross - who didn't realise at the time how special the shot was.
He told the Lennox Herald: “I just took it on my iPhone, so I reckon it was just a lucky shot if I’m being honest.”
“It wasn’t until I got home that I noticed and thought that it wasn’t a bad shot.”
“We go to Glencoe every February because that's where me and my fiance, Dorothy, got engaged, and that’s where we got it.”
6 PC December/January 2020
“Working in the turf industry has been much more than a job to me. It has been my life’s work and passion,” says Nedin. “There’s a picture of me standing behind my father’s reel-type power lawn mower when I was just 5 years old. At age 9, I worked in a lawn mower repair shop, and in my teens, I started working at a local country club, repairing golf carts and turf equipment. Eventually, I was promoted to assistant superintendent, then superintendent.”
“Being the recipient of this year’s prestigious Edwin Budding award is truly an honour,” says Nedin. “There are so many great people in this industry I’ve had the privilege of working with over the years. We get up every morning, go to work, and simply do our jobs. I am
humbled and greatly appreciative to those who nominated me.”
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