Use of artificial turf demands a closer look | LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Published 10:40 am Sunday, November 23, 2014

To the editor:

I am writing this letter about a story that aired Oct. 8 on NBC nightly news titled “How Safe is the Artificial Turf Your Child Plays On?,” in which Amy Griffin, a University of Washington associate head soccer coach, had been visiting players in the hospital, including two young goalies with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

During one of her visits a chance encounter with a nurse made the hair on the back of her neck stand up when she heard the nurse ask, “Don’t tell me you guys are goalkeepers. You’re the fourth goalkeeper I’ve hooked up this week. Later, the young woman with the chemo needle in her arm would say, “I just have a feeling it has something to do with those black dots.”

Those black dots are actually called crumb rubber, which are shredded truck and car tires (which are composed of several carcinogens). These crumb rubbers fill the space between the artificial blades of grass and end up everywhere, including in kid’s mouths.

This occurred in 2009 and since then Coach Amy Griffith has been compiling names of players who have developed cancer and the list is growing: out of the 38 she has compiled 34 are goalies.

Goalies happen to spend a lot of time rolling around on the ground and getting these black dots in their mouth, nose, eyes and more. In the story they reported that the New York City Parks Department and

LA school system no longer install the artificial grass surface citing multiple health concerns. When the EPA was asked they responded that more studies need to be done.

Since we currently have artificial turf on playing fields on Bainbridge I thought I should write this letter to any parent, grandparent or concerned citizen who didn’t get a chance to watch this news story.

The story goes into much greater detail and I would encourage anyone and everyone to go to nbcnews.com to read and see the whole story, “How Safe is the Artificial Turf Your Child Plays On.”

FYI there is a lengthy story with more info under the video, which

I almost missed when I re-watched the video of the news story. I hope this can spark an informed discussion about the safety of these surfaces and our children’s health regarding whether we should keep these in our community.

WENDIE VON FELDT

Bainbridge Island