Hartford — State Rep. Diana Urban, D-North Stonington, on Tuesday praised the Planning and Development Committee’s approval of legislation she introduced that would ban the use of recycled tires known as crumb rubber on school and municipal playgrounds.

Urban introduced House Bill 6998 in her role as chairwoman of the state legislature’s Children’s Committee.

“Shredded tires contain a dozen known carcinogens and pose a serious health threat to children,” Urban said at a news conference Friday, just before the committee approved the legislation. It now goes to the floor of the state House of Representatives.

Urban said studies have shown crumb rubber contains not only carcinogens but also 20 lung irritants and is especially dangerous to children with developing organs and immature immune systems.

Children "sit, they roll, they eat, they drink on playgrounds,” she said.

According to testimony before the committee by Dr. Sarah Evans and Dr. Robert Wright, both of the Mount Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center, children are uniquely vulnerable to harmful exposure to recycled rubber surfaces.

“Public playgrounds are typically utilized by children age 6 months to 12 years, a population exquisitely vulnerable to the health effects of toxic environmental exposure. Given the hazards associated with recycled tire rubber, it is our recommendation that these products never be used on surfaces where children play,” Evans and Wright said in written testimony submitted to the committee.