Safer ‘synthetic turf’ sought for Sports Park
Chemicals used to make artificial turf are believed to be cancer-causing by some residents
A planned replacement beginning this fall and continuing on into 2021 of athletic fields at the Woodland Sports Park is prompting calls to make sure the new synthetic turf won’t cause cancer.
Liza Grandia from the Woodland Coalition for Green Schools, along with Mark Aulman of the city’s Sustainability Advisory Committee and Woodland School Trustee Deborah Bautista Zavala all asked the City Council to use discretion when it starts considering what type of synthetic turf to buy.
The city plans to replace the turf at the Sports Park, located at the Woodland Community & Senior Center, starting with two fields this fall and the remaining fields in 2021. There are five fields set to be replaced of 560,000 square feet.
About $2.75 million has been allocated by the city for the project and it could be more depending on the bids submitted.
The effort comes after Woodland School trustees in mid-December drafted a new flooring policy which provides for ecofriendly materials in schools. That policy was created with Grandia’s assistance. She had previously led efforts to replace flooring at Beamer Elementary School, citing its cancer-causing risks.
Bautista Zavala was also elected to the school board in part because she advocated for new eco-friendly classrooms.
The school district’s new policy provides that “flooring products” such as tile, adhesives, floor leveling compounds, and other “components” all be verified by third-party analysts to make sure they are “free of chemicals of concern for staff and student’s health.”
Some of the products in the flooring include polyurethane/ isocyanates, cadmium, lead, and
other heavy metals, formaldehyde, styrene/butadiene, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or brominated flame retardants.
Those are similar to some of the chemicals in synthetic turf. Other material includes crumb rubber, which contains 92 chemicals of which 11 are carcinogenic, according to studies, if they come in regular contact either physically or through breathing, particularly as it starts to break down and turns to dust.
According to some studies, athletes using fields during the heat of summer face greater risks during the summer because the chemicals “volatilize” in warm weather, turning into a gas that is inhaled.
And because synthetic turf fields are made out of petrochemical products, they are flammable. That means they also coated with flame retardant chemicals, which are also toxic.
Grandia told the council that studies have found professional soccer players
— particularly goalies — are seeing rising rates of cancer due to their extended exposure. She also said because of the compounds in the fields, they are harder to recycle at landfills.
Grandia said the school
district’s program is “leading edge” and hopes the city would adopt a similar policy.
Aulman supports that idea. He advocated the city use what he calls the “precautionary principle,” which means it won’t take the assurances of “self-regulating bodies at face value” when it comes to the purchase of potentially cancercausing products but “expose them to a thorough evaluation that would include” their health effects.
He cited the crashes of two Boeing 757 Max airplanes. The planes were approved for flight based on safety studies done by Boeing but not the Federal Aviation Administration, which is supposed to oversee the airline industry.
He said putting the “precautionary principle” in effect would mean evaluating products based in part on their potential human health effects, an estimate
of alternatives and a “total cost” analysis that would include recycling or other disposal methods, and a “participatory decision-making process involving the community.”
What Aulman doesn’t want to see happen is Woodland “building into the Woodland environment certain hazards for our children.”
Bautista Zavala said she played on the Sports Park fields when younger and that her children use the fields today.
She noted the use of crumb rubber, which comes from recycled tires but is also cancer-causing and is “dirty” when it comes to recycling at landfills.
She urged the council “to select something that is non-toxic and safe for our youth and future generations.”
Contact reporter Jim Smith at 530-406-6230.