Hello again! Welcome back to this series of blog posts where I’ll be dissecting the true cost of rock climbing shoes. I thought to start off with the issue of rubber in climbing shoes, but soon realised that there seems to be a lack of information about this in the climbing scene. Rubber used in climbing shoes is mostly synthetically produced to achieve the stickiness that allows climbers to keep a tight grip on the wall. Since sole rubber composition is an advantage factor between companies in the climbing shoe industry, it is understandable that there is a lack of transparency in the formulas and processes used to produce climbing rubber. I did manage to find a little bit of information on the Ocun website which provided a brief description of the main ingredients used to produce sole rubber. At the top of the list is synthetic caoutchouc, also known as synthetic un-vulcanised rubber.
The processing of synthetic rubber gives rise hazards due to the release of harmful chemicals in the process. 1,3-Butadiene and styrene are monomers involved in the production of synthetic rubber and 1,3-Butadiene has been flagged as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (Sathiakumar et al., 2009). These monomers are released as emissions from processing factories during synthetic rubber production and contaminate the air within these facilities. Studies on synthetic rubber factory workers have discovered a positive association between butadiene exposure and leukaemia incidence (Graff et al., 2005) and a higher lung cancer mortality rate in female workers who had been exposed to butadiene or styrene (Sathiakumar et al., 2009).
Without full disclosure of the complete production process of climbing shoe rubber, it would be near impossible for consumers to understand the environmental impacts of the shoes they wear. Reporting standards should be developed within the industry to ensure companies can be held responsible for the sole rubber production process while balancing the issue of retaining their competitive advantage.
References
Graff, J. J., Sathiakumar, N., Macaluso, M., Maldonado, G., Matthews, R., & Delzell, E. (2005). Chemical exposures in the synthetic rubber industry and lymphohematopoietic cancer mortality. Journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 916-932.
Sathiakumar, N., Brill, I., & Delzell, E. (2009). 1, 3-butadiene, styrene and lung cancer among synthetic rubber industry workers. Journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 1326-1332.
