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Non Toxic Portsmouth continues push for natural grass field

Portsmouth Herald - 2/18/2018

PORTSMOUTH - For Ted Jankowski, the debate about whether to plant natural grass at the city's new athletic field or use tire crumb rubber infill as city staff have recommended, comes down to what he calls the "cautionary principle."

"Why in the world would we risk the health of some kid 10 or 20 years from now when there's safe alternatives," Jankowski said.

Jankowski, who helped form Non Toxic Portsmouth, is calling for the city to plant natural grass at its new field at the former "stump dump" off Route 33. He contends using a crumb rubber infill would risk the health of children who use the field and the city's nearby Collins water well.

"No one knows at all what the safety of this is," Jankowski said Thursday at a meeting at the city library.

The City Council voted 8-1 in May 2017 to put out a bid request to use the crumb rubber infill for the city's new field, along with two other infill alternate bids. Department of Public Works Director Peter Rice said recently that bids for the field turf will go out shortly.

After the bids come in, Rice said, the City Council will make the decision about what type of field it will be. But city staff contend crumb rubber infill is safe and using artificial turf for the field instead of grass allows for much greater use of the field.

Rachel Massey, of the Toxics Use Reduction Institute at UMass-Lowell, said "a number of the materials that are found in tire crumb are either known or suspected human carcinogens." Her institute, she said during an appearance at the library Thursday, "is working to promote natural grass as a safer alternative" to artificial turf fields.

That's particularly true when there's "organic management of natural grass," she said.

Tire crumb is manufactured by "reducing scrap tires down to various sizes depending on its intended application and market use, and by removing 99 percent or more of the steel and fabric from them," according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA acknowledges "people are concerned and players and their families want answers. Limited studies have not shown an elevated health risk from playing on fields with tire crumb, but existing studies do not comprehensively evaluate the concerns about health risks from exposure to tire crumb."

The EPA launched a comprehensive study in February 2016 on the topic with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, but that study has not been finished.

Despite the EPA's acknowledgment that more research is needed, Weston & Sampson, the city's often used consultants, said in early 2017 that crumb rubber fields have been extensively studied by "third-party agencies, universities and scientific labs." "It is our belief, based on all of the information we could locate, that these fields are considered safe by leading experts for children and adults," Weston & Sampson stated in its report.

But Massey cautioned residents at Thursday's meeting to be careful when they hear about all the studies on crumb rubber. "It's true that there has been lots of studies, but I think it's important to understand what those studies are and what they are not," she said. "A lot of the studies are materials classification, which means figuring out what's in the material. A few of them are exposure studies, but those have been very limited. Overall the exposure research really has not been done yet."

There also have been no epidemiological studies done, Massey said.

"That means there are no studies that have actually looked at people who are exposed to artificial turf fields and look at what their disease patterns are," she said.

People can be exposed to the chemicals in turf fields either by breathing them in, absorbing them through the skin or ingesting them, Massy said. She stressed all artificial turf fields can be particularly dangerous to people on hot days, when temperatures can reach 150 degrees slightly above the field.

Coaches need to be well educated about this danger, she said, because it creates "a very immediate hazard of heat related illnesses among children." She recommended canceling games on hot days when children are involved, saying the threat "can be lethal."

Chip Osborne of Osborne Organics also told the people at Thursday's meeting that natural grass fields can be used as much as turf fields when designed properly. That includes over-seeding, using organic products and aerating the field four times a year, he said. He acknowledged unlike artificial turf fields, grass fields can't be used in the rain, otherwise they could take up to six weeks to recover.

During the presentation he showed several pictures of weed-less natural grass fields more and more communities are using. Unlike grass, when an artificial turf field can't be used anymore, the town or city is left with "hazardous waste," he said.

Mayor Jack Blalock was one of the eight council members who last year voted to put out the field bids using artificial turf. Asked about the concerns raised by Non Toxic Portsmouth, Blalock said, "From what I know at this point, and I'm not privy to as much information as they might have, crumb rubber fields are relatively safe. They can get a lot more use and help with our field shortage."

He noted there is a crumb rubber field at the high school. But he stressed he "certainly wouldn't want to install something that would be a public health hazard."

Jankowski hopes city councilors will think about the risk before voting to use crumb rubber at the new field. Non Toxic Portsmouth, he said, aims to "educate people and educate our elected officials so they're more knowledge about what their proposing."