New push to explore potential health threats of artificial turf fields

MEDWAY, Mass. — There's a new push Thursday to explore the potential health threats of artificial turf athletic fields.

They're easy to find at schools across New England and a key material used to make them has raised alarm.

Last spring, FOX25 found extraordinarily high temperatures wafting off the surface of synthetic athletic fields. But what's got some parents newly concerned is the stuff below the surface.

It's this, the recycled tire underlayment known as crumb rubber.

Tracy Stewart of Medway works with a national group that's urging federal regulators to look into whether crumb rubber could be harmful to children.

Stewart said, "Right now, I think the only thing for parents to do is look our for their own children and try to push their legislators to get on board."

This week, three Massachusetts legislators did "get on board" and sent a letter to the Consumer Product Safety Commission asking whether crumb rubber was safe.

One of the three was Representative Jeffrey Roy of Franklin.

The Massachusetts lawmaker writes: "As children are coming into contact with this material on playgrounds and artificial turf sports fields, we ask that CPSC label this as a children's product."

"Recognizing that a lot of kids are playing on these fields, that we should get this issue to the experts, have the scientists evaluate it and have the scientists give us some guidelines on how to safely use these fields," he said.

The synthetic turf council, an industry trade group, tells FOX25 it welcomes more study of artificial turf fields, but points out that dozens of studies have already shown no elevated health risk

Yet the material safety data sheet from the company that supplied Medway's crumb rubber mentions potential health effects including irritation to the respiratory tract, skin irritation and abrasion to the eyes with, they write, potentially severe damage.

Cox Media Group