Controversy surrounds new turf fields
The DE Turf Sports Complex is set to open next year. As plans now stand, the $24 million project will have 2 natural grass fields and 10 artificial turf fields. Millions of children across America play soccer every year, and with sports tourism being a multi-billion dollar industry, it’s no surprise the state of Delaware is looking to get a piece of the pie, with their planned DE Turf Complex in Frederica.
There’s a big advantage to haveing a turf field compared to grass. Ed O’Hara who is the director of the sports group at CHA Sports says “it has to do with reliability of the surface when teams fly in and drive in from all around the area.” O’Hara continued: “what happens at some of these other complexes with grass is that teams come in they get rain and they tell 1,000 kids that are there, we’re not playing this weekend.”
There is however, considerable controversy. Specifically surrounding the crumb rubber used as fill on artificial turf fields. The rubber is ground up recycled tires, the material is known to carry a number of known carcinogens. Some of these cancer causing agents like lead and arsenic as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Tom Cawthern, assistant professor of Geosciences at Salisbury University says “once those chemicals are kind of interacting with the atmosphere or water, all these chemical reactions are going to occur and those chemicals then can be drawn back out of the materials.” Cawthern says those chemicals then can get into the groundwater or deposited in the air.
The concern comes when these chemicals come into contact with the athletes when they are ingested or inhaled. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, the EPA, and the CDC have all launched their own investigation in February. This is the result from pressure from parents, environmental activists, and legislators.
As of right now, there is no definitive link between the crumb rubber and cancer. Tom Cawthern, who is with Salisbury University’s Geosciences dept. says you must be exposed to carcinogens in the recycled rubber pieces for extensive periods of time for it to get into your system. Michael Peterson, who is a senior toxicologist with a consulting company out of Massachusetts agrees, saying “even with those long term exposures, the risk levels are not above what would be acceptable by the U.S. EPA.”
Peterson was referred to 47ABC by the Delaware Department of Tourism. He says the levels of those carcinogens are just about equal to that of the levels in natural soil. Peterson concludes that a number of studies show that crumb rubber is safe. “there isn’t one study out there that has looked at everything all at the same time, but when you look at all those 90 studies all together in the totality of the evidence, I think it’s pretty darn convincing and very consistent.”
