{"id":10237,"date":"2023-11-29T08:34:31","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T14:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=10237"},"modified":"2023-11-29T08:34:31","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T14:34:31","slug":"whats-in-your-playground-uwl-chemistry-researchers-study-trace-metal-contamination-in-playground-surfaces","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/whats-in-your-playground-uwl-chemistry-researchers-study-trace-metal-contamination-in-playground-surfaces\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s in your playground? UWL chemistry researchers study trace metal contamination in playground surfaces"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Photo<\/a>
UWL Senior Katie Peterson prepares samples. To simulate entering the stomach, samples of rubber play surface, wood chips and sand are added to acidic solutions, shaken up and heated at body temperature for two hours, the amount of time the sample would be in someone\u2019s stomach. To simulate a being put in the mouth, a clean water solution is used instead of the acid solution.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Slippers on their feet, chemistry researchers pass through two doors, arriving in a small room where filtered air circulates on the third floor of UW-La Crosse\u2019s Prairie Springs Science Center. Inside the glass walls of this “clean lab” researchers in white lab coats, gloves and goggles are careful not to track in even a hint of contamination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is probably the cleanest place in southwest Wisconsin,\u201d notes UWL Chemistry Professor Kristofer Rolfhus, a glimmer of pride in his eyes.<\/p>\n

While their research is as closed off from the rest of the world as it can be, the application of their work will extend far beyond these walls. The results will be shared with La Crosse city officials and school districts with the goal of better public health for the La Crosse area and beyond.<\/p>\n

Rolfhus and his team of three undergraduate research students received permission from school districts and city officials to sample playground surfaces for contaminants. They have collected surface from 20 different spots in the region. All of the samples were gathered by community members, including children, so the research is truly \u201ccitizen science\u201d at work, notes Rolfhus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ultimate goal is to increase awareness, so managers can make more informed decisions about what surfaces children are playing on,\u201d says Rolfhus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Teamwork for community health<\/h3>\n
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\"Photo<\/a>
A team of three UWL undergraduate students in chemistry and biochemistry are working on the research with mentor Kris Rolfhus (right). They are, from left, William Murphy, a junior biochemistry major; Abigail Jahn, a junior chemistry major; and Katie Peterson, a senior chemistry major with an environmental concentration.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The team of chemists is testing each sample for trace metals such as lead and arsenic. These contaminants could be found as rubber chips in many playground surfaces are created using shredded auto tires, which have questionable origin in terms of cleanliness. If the samples produce solutions with concentrations of trace metals above what would be considered safe, then the team will be able to inform the public of the potential risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes \u00a0there is a \u00a0disconnect between the community and what we are doing in this building,\u201d says Rolfhus. \u201cEveryone here is doing important work, and it\u2019s nice to be able to directly tie what we are doing here to the health of community members.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UWL research is in partnership with the national and local organizations, the\u00a0American Geophysical Union\u2019s Thriving Earth Exchange<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Safer Playspaces \u00a0and Community Environments<\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n

About a year ago, Thriving Earth Exchange asked Rolfhus if he was interested in testing contaminants in city and school district playground surfaces. The team of UWL chemistry researchers \u2014 including Rolfhus and three undergraduate students\u2014 attended the \u00a0La Crosse Earth Fair in early spring to hand out sample collection kits to gather playground surfaces from various city locations and return to UWL for testing. They collected a total of 32 \u00a0samples.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Photo<\/a>
While the group is looking at trace metals in rubber, wood chip and sand surfaces, many other contaminants can make their way into playground surfaces such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons, chemicals that occur naturally in coal, crude oil, and gasoline. This study will just examine trace metal contaminants.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The aim is to compare the relative extraction of trace metals from shredded rubber to wood chips and sand, which are also popular playground surface types. They\u2019ll use special instruments to mimic what happens to these materials as they sit in the mouth and stomach, just as they would if someone were to ingest them.<\/p>\n

UWL Senior Katie Peterson, a chemistry major with environmental science concentration, started conducting research with Rolfhus as a sophomore. When he proposed focusing on the playground surface study, she was intrigued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was a good idea because it is community-based research, and it was a bigger-picture project than what I\u2019ve previously worked on,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The partner organizations are interested in using Rolfhus\u2019 initial study to create a toolkit that could be shared with other communities to do the same type of citizen science sample research to \u00a0raise more awareness about potential contamination, he adds.<\/p>\n

The UWL chemistry team anticipates having results by the end of 2023, which will then be communicated to those who contributed samples, as well as city and school district officials.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Written by UW-La Crosse<\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/www.uwlax.edu\/news\/posts\/whats-in-your-playground\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Slippers on their feet, chemistry researchers pass through two doors, arriving in a small room where filtered air circulates on the third floor of UW-La Crosse\u2019s Prairie Springs Science Center. Inside the glass walls of this “clean lab” researchers in white lab coats, gloves and goggles are careful not to track in even a hint […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":10266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[104],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-10237","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-la-crosse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/10237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=10237"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=10237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}