Thursday, May 21, 2015

Artificial turf may cause childhood cancer


From CBS 2:

CBS2 first reported last January on concerns over artificial turf playing fields being a potential danger to kids.

Now in a CBS2 investigation, Carolyn Gusoff has found these fields may be linked to a growing number of cancer cases in young athletes.

Experts said the bad things in question include a number of chemicals.

“We know some of these chemicals do cause cancer,” said Dr. Robert Cohen of Northwestern Medicine.

Now, the issue is building steam — from New Jersey to Long Island and even New York City, where there are hundreds of similar fields.

“These are many years that children are playing on this surface, and they’re growing up on this surface, and now, we’re seeing throughout the country these cancer clusters,” said New York City Parks Advocates President Geoffrey Croft.

Croft said he has been petitioning the city to remove the 200-plus crumb rubber fields currently in local parks.

But the Synthetic Turf Council, which represents the companies that make the fields, insists the substance is safe. They cited 60 studies.

One of the studies cited was conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency, which examined four crumb rubber fields in 2009 and found that harmful chemicals were “below levels of concern.”

But Long Island U.S. Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) said the EPA study is in adequate.

“Common sense tells us that four fields is not an adequate sample in an entire country,” he said.

Israel insisted that the agency should do more testing.

“The only way we’re going to know whether these fields are truly safe or unsafe is for the EPA to get its act together, and update the study, and let the American people know so that they can make their own judgments,” Israel said.

In a statement, the EPA acknowledged its original study was limited, and that more testing needs to be done. But the agency did not commit to doing it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess the politicians behind this are getting money from those who will get the contracts to replace the fields,maybe stock options
EPA better wake up and find in favor of the Pols and layerws behind this or lose funding.
ASStroturf,inc We only use cancer causing agent's Endorced by policians on Our Payrolls!!!

Anonymous said...

I missed the part in the article on the DIRECT LINK between cancer and these fields, and any one of several thousand other things that could be the cause...? Bueller? Bueller?

Anonymous said...

There isn't a direct link between much of anything other than smoking causing cancer.

But there certainly is a body of evidence that suggests that breathing in crumb rubber vapors is bad for you. It's made of latex for christ's sake.