Is artificial turf safe if the recycled tire crumb is left out? Doctors say serious cause for concern remains. LGUSD, wait for an answer. It's unnecessary to declare it either safe or unsafe.
Are we confident that board members, teachers and administration, and community members explicitly advocating for use of plastic grass on our elementary school campuses are well-informed of its pros and cons?
Are we confident they've been presented with alternatives? Have they been presented with attractive, inviting, low maintenance corridor and courtyard designs without plastic grass? Have they been presented with an overly simplistic approach to water conservation on the fields??
Terese McNamee, Director of Maintenance and Operations Thomas Lettiere, and our landscape designer Devin Conway have all repeatedly stated publicly they have no stake in the game, that they are not advocating for plastic grass, and that they are simply providing options for the the decision-makers, the LGUSD Board of Trustees. Presumably stakeholders are relying on the LGUSD board and the district to have thoroughly researched the options being presented to them.
HAVE the litany of issues around artificial turf usage been well-researched by the LGUSD board and our district management staff? Why are they so willing to accept the opinion of the landscape architect's or the consultant (hired specifically to assert safety) and narrowly limit the scope of issues under consideration? Meanwhile, volumes of questions are being asked in the scientific community...
THE ISSUE OF SAFETY IS NOT YET CLEAR.
All of the following applies to both artificial turf systems that include, and artificial turf systems that exclude, infill made from recycled tire crumb. This is why LGUSD has NOT adequately addressed artificial turf safety concerns simply by proposing to use a version made without recycled tires.
California's Department of Toxic Substances Control is currently evaluating whether artificial turf should be classified as a product that needs to be labelled as toxic.
Installation of artificial turf is strongly discouraged by UCSF Western States Pediatric Environmental Health Unit (that sent a letter stating so directly addressed to the LGUSD school board) and The Children’s Environmental Health Center in the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai!
The lack of a risk assessment available from peer-reviewed researchers and government agencies does not confer a conclusion of low risk. The jury is still out. LGUSD, wait for an answer, just as other very forward-thinking communities are doing. (Examples: Millbrae, CA and Sharon, MA)
"Decisions are being made on misinformation & inaccurate studies" Safe Healthy Playing Fields, Inc. reports:
"The fact is, no government agency has concluded artificial turf is safe - not the EPA nor the CPSC. Only the industry which gains financially from your use of these fields has paid consultants to conclude safety from very limited, inconclusive tests. There are no tests showing synturf is safe.
There are only tests that cannot prove that it will give you cancer. In addition, the EPA, CPSC and CDC each warn players to take precautions when using AT fields. State and local entities are deciding to postpone or abort artificial turf to invest in properly build, properly maintained grass fields instead."
LGUSD, please role model stewardship of both the health of our community's children and our environment by keeping the plastic grass off our elementary school campuses, at the very least until more is known about its safety.