Thanks!
“

Thanks for writing. Like you, we are mindful of the health and safety issues associated with our facilities. That’s why we asked many questions about the turf surface before proceeding, including those you identified above.

The turf fabricator with whom we are working (FieldTurf) reports that “the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (NJDHSS) found that there are “very low or undetectable levels of lead” in the polyethylene fibers used by FieldTurf. However, the NJDHSS stated that “high levels of lead” were found in the nylon turf fibers - old style, carpet-like fibers that are not even remotely similar to FieldTurf’s fibers. FieldTurf has never used nylon fibers. This is not the first time that FieldTurf, the inventor of the infilled grass system, has been mistakenly accused and lumped in with other turf manufacturers.”

This month NPR ran a story pegged to heat issues associated with turf fields (e.g. the surface can get hot); their report also touched upon larger safety concerns and noted that “the New York City Health Department hired consultants to assess potential health risks associated with crumb-rubber turf fields. The report concludes that the risk of harm from exposure to hazardous chemicals such as lead in the rubber appears to be very low unless the chemicals are basically eaten. According to the report, another possibility is that players may inhale chemicals that vaporize to form a gas. Health assessments suggest that the exposure levels are likely below a level of concern to human health. But these assessments use conservative estimates of exposure.”

The New York State Dept. of Health recently published a “Fact Sheet” which concludes that a “review of the available information on crumb rubber and crumb rubber infilled turf fields indicates that ingestion, dermal or inhalation exposures to chemicals in or released from crumb rubber do not pose a significant public health concern.”

http://www.nyhealth.gov/environmental/outdoors/synthetic_turf/crumb-rubber_infilled/fact_sheet.htm

Ground-up tires have been used for at least two decades in products produced by a company called Mondo, which is the world-wide standard for tracks, including most of the Olympic tracks since the early 1980s. Many colleges have indoor Mondo surfaces, and we’re unaware of any dangers arising from their use.

With respect to staph, our teams have been using Haverford School’s turf field for many years with no evidence of staph.

We’ll remain sensitive to such issues as the science on the topic moves forward, and appreciate your raising these important points.

Chris ‘82

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/352/5/468
http://www.ehhi.org/reports/turf/turf_report07.pdf