A Parenting & kids forum. ParentingBanter.com

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » ParentingBanter.com forum » misc.kids » Breastfeeding
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Parents Raising Concerns Over Synthetic Turf



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old October 29th 07, 06:26 AM posted to misc.kids.health,misc.kids.pregnancy,misc.kids.breastfeeding,sci.environment
Tim Campbell
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 49
Default Parents Raising Concerns Over Synthetic Turf



By JEFF HOLTZ
http://www.nytimes. com/2007/ 10/28/nyregion/ nyregionspecial2 /
28turfwe. html

LAST school year, Patricia Taylor noticed something worrisome after
her
son Liam, 12, would play soccer at the Bedford Middle School in
Westport,
Conn., on a synthetic turf field made with rubber granules from
recycled
tires.

Mrs. Taylor said Liam would come home with the tiny particles in his
cleats, in his clothes and in his hair.

"I just looked at him and said, 'What the heck is that?'" she said.
"Kids
are tracking it back home, into washers and dryers, on the rugs and in
their tubs. It's not just staying on the field. It's migrating."

The turf is the latest in artificial playing surfaces, and its use has
risen in the last decade at schools, colleges and sports stadiums
worldwide. Supporters say it is cheaper to maintain than natural grass
and
softer, and therefore safer, than other artificial surfaces. But
concern
is growing among some parents and health officials that the rubber
used in
the turf can release chemicals that are potentially harmful to the
athletes who play on it.

Such concerns on the part of Mrs. Taylor and other parents led to a
study
this summer by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New
Haven. It found that when the rubber granules were heated in a
laboratory
at temperatures consistent to exposure to the sun, they emitted four
organic chemicals that could irritate the eyes, skin and respiratory
system. One of the chemicals is believed to be a carcinogen. The study
also detected other chemicals that could not be identified without
further
testing.

Mrs. Taylor and other parents said athletes should not be using the
fields
until they have been proven safe.

Nancy O. Alderman, the president of Environment and Human Health Inc.
in
New Haven, a nonprofit group of doctors and public health officials
that
researches health issues and funded the study, has called for a
moratorium
on the installation of the fields until more studies are done. "We
know
the rubber pellets out-gas these chemicals," Ms. Alderman said. "The
one
piece we do not know is how much of these chemicals are going into
people's bodies."

Gordon F. Joseloff, the first selectman in Westport, where there are
four
synthetic turf playing surfaces at schools, agreed that more testing
needed to be done, but said that the state's Department of Public
Health,
based on available information, saw no reason to stop using the
fields.

"We're open to testing in real-time conditions, not in laboratory
conditions, because kids don't play in a laboratory," he said.

Brian Toal, an epidemiologist with the department's environmental and
occupational health assessment program, acknowledged that "the
information
is somewhat sketchy, and some of the studies do indicate that there
are
exposures."

"But our estimation is the exposures are below levels that would cause
a
health effect," he said.

Similar health concerns have been raised in Massachusetts and on Long
Island. In Albany on Wednesday, State Assemblyman Steven C.
Englebright, a
Democrat from Long Island, introduced legislation calling for a
moratorium
on new fields.

There are about a dozen companies that manufacture synthetic athletic
turf. Sportexe, based in Dallas, made the Westport fields.

Phil M. Stricklen, a chemist who is the company's director of research
and
development, said the fields were safe.

"We see no reason for concern for the people playing on these fields,"
he
said.

Patricia J. Wood, the executive director of Grassroots Environmental
Education in Port Washington, N.Y., a nonprofit group that studies the
links between the environment and public health, said she had been
contacted by a number of parents worried about synthetic turf.

"They want answers," she said. "They want to know whether it's safe,
whether they should continue to allow their kids to play on it."

In Westchester, the county's Legacy Program, an open-space
preservation
fund, has committed close to $25 million and built eight turf and
three
natural grass fields, with several more planned. County health
officials
said they had received only a couple of calls on the fields' safety.

Several parents in the county involved in the installations said the
only
concerns they were aware of were financial - whether the fields, which
cost $500,000 to $1 million each, were worth it.

In White Plains, which has one field and is installing two more, Arne
M.
Abramowitz, the city's parks commissioner, said he had not heard of
any
health concerns.

There are more than 50 synthetic turf fields in Connecticut, including
in
Westport, Stamford and Greenwich.

In Fairfield, where the Fairfield Country Day School, a private boys
school, plans to install a synthetic turf field, two neighborhood
groups -
Preserve Our District and Fairfielders Protecting Land and
Neighborhoods -
have filed notices to try to stop the town from issuing a inland
wetland
permit, claiming that the chemicals from the rubber pellets could harm
the
environment and potentially contaminate groundwater, said Joel Z.
Green, a
lawyer for both groups.

A lawyer for the school, John F. Fallon, defended the school's
actions,
saying officials there had consulted with several experts on the
field's
safety.

Annette Jacobson, the conservation administrator for the Town of
Fairfield, said a report she prepared found no indication that the
turf
would adversely affect wetlands or water sources. Another hearing on
the
wetland permit was scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Monday at Osborne Hill
Elementary School.

While saying there is no need for panic, the Connecticut attorney
general,
Richard Blumenthal, is asking the state to spend $200,000 so the state
Agricultural Experiment Station can study the issue further. "There
are
some serious unknowns, as far as potential heath risk," he said.
"Certainly there is a need for more study and research."

Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, a professor of pediatrics and the chairman of
preventive medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York,
agreed that there should be a moratorium on new fields, and said that
tests should be done on the skin, urine and blood of children before
and
after they play on them. He also said the turf poses other dangers,
besides the exposure to chemicals.

"On hot summer days, temperatures as high as 130 and 140 degrees have
been
recorded a couple of feet above the surface of these fields," he said.

Several medical journals have reported that athletes who fall on
synthetic
turf are more likely to sustain skin burns that put them at risk of
staph
infections, Dr. Landrigan said.

Liam Taylor and his mother are proceeding with caution. This year, he
is
on the soccer team at the Hopkins School in New Haven, which does not
have
a synthetic turf field, and his mother refuses to let him play at any
school that does have one.

"My job is to protect my son," she said. "Now that there is evidence
of
out-gassing, he will not be exposed until the fields are proven safe."

  #2  
Old October 29th 07, 01:21 PM posted to misc.kids.health,misc.kids.pregnancy,misc.kids.breastfeeding,sci.environment
Jeff
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,321
Default Parents Raising Concerns Over Synthetic Turf

Tim Campbell wrote:
...


Such concerns on the part of Mrs. Taylor and other parents led to a
study
this summer by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New
Haven. It found that when the rubber granules were heated in a
laboratory
at temperatures consistent to exposure to the sun, they emitted four
organic chemicals that could irritate the eyes, skin and respiratory
system. One of the chemicals is believed to be a carcinogen. The study
also detected other chemicals that could not be identified without
further
testing.


What chemicals? In what quantities? Has anyone complained of eye, skin
and respiratory irritation? What about allowing cars with this type of
rubber near the field? Maybe they should ban them. And bikes, too, with
tires made of this sort of rubber or having it as part of the bike brakes.

What about the equipment and chemicals used to maintain grass fields? Do
they cause eye, skin and respiratory irritation?

What about kids? They, too, give off noxious substances. If you don't
believe me, just visit my cousin at a soccer game.

Chemicals are a part of life. My body if full of them. They have names
like DNA, RNA, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, glucose,
catachol-o-mehtyl transferase, hemoglobin, acetic acid, glycine. And
they are all made by my body.

To me, it seems that no case that the artificial field is a danger has
been made.

Jeff
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Parents Raising Concerns Over Synthetic Turf Tim Campbell Pregnancy 1 October 29th 07 01:21 PM
Parents Raising Concerns Over Synthetic Turf Tim Campbell Kids Health 1 October 29th 07 01:21 PM
DCF Vs. Parents: Unfair Tactics?: Judge's Rebuke Of Agency WorkerRenews Concerns About Child Welfare Cases fx Spanking 13 July 24th 07 11:07 PM
DCF Vs. Parents: Unfair Tactics?: Judge's Rebuke Of Agency WorkerRenews Concerns About Child Welfare Cases fx Foster Parents 13 July 24th 07 11:07 PM
MY RESPONSE TO MANY CONCERNS PARENTS HAVE SHARED Bob3660 General 2 September 25th 05 06:03 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 08:52 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 ParentingBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.