LAST school year, Patricia Taylor noticed something worrisome after her son Liam, 12, would play soccer at the Bedford Middle School in Westport, Conn., on a synthetic turf field made with rubber granules from recycled tires.
Mrs. Taylor said Liam would come home with the tiny particles in his cleats, in his clothes and in his hair.

“I just looked at him and said, ‘What the heck is that?’” she said. “Kids are tracking it back home, into washers and dryers, on the rugs and in their tubs. It’s not just staying on the field. It’s migrating.”

The turf is the latest in artificial playing surfaces, and its use has risen in the last decade at schools, colleges and sports stadiums worldwide. Supporters say it is cheaper to maintain than natural grass and softer, and therefore safer, than other artificial surfaces. But concern is growing among some parents and health officials that the rubber used in the turf can release chemicals that are potentially harmful to the athletes who play on it.

Such concerns on the part of Mrs. Taylor and other parents led to a study this summer by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven. It found that when the rubber granules were heated in a laboratory at temperatures consistent to exposure to the sun, they emitted four organic chemicals that could irritate the eyes, skin and respiratory system. One of the chemicals is believed to be a carcinogen. The study also detected other chemicals that could not be identified without further testing.

Mrs. Taylor and other parents said athletes should not be using the fields until they have been proven safe.

Nancy O. Alderman, the president of Environment and Human Health Inc. in New Haven, a nonprofit group of doctors and public health officials that researches health issues and funded the study, has called for a moratorium on the installation of the fields until more studies are done. “We know the rubber pellets out-gas these chemicals,” Ms. Alderman said. “The one piece we do not know is how much of these chemicals are going into people’s bodies.”

Gordon F. Joseloff, the first selectman in Westport, where there are four synthetic turf playing surfaces at schools, agreed that more testing needed to be done, but said that the state’s Department of Public Health, based on available information, saw no reason to stop using the fields.

“We’re open to testing in real-time conditions, not in laboratory conditions, because kids don’t play in a laboratory,” he said.

Brian Toal, an epidemiologist with the department’s environmental and occupational health assessment program, acknowledged that “the information is somewhat sketchy, and some of the studies do indicate that there are exposures.”

“But our estimation is the exposures are below levels that would cause a health effect,” he said.

Similar health concerns have been raised in Massachusetts and on Long Island. In Albany on Wednesday, State Assemblyman Steven C. Englebright, a Democrat from Long Island, introduced legislation calling for a moratorium on new fields.

There are about a dozen companies that manufacture synthetic athletic turf. Sportexe, based in Dallas, made the Westport fields.

Phil M. Stricklen, a chemist who is the company’s director of research and development, said the fields were safe.

“We see no reason for concern for the people playing on these fields,” he said.

Patricia J. Wood, the executive director of Grassroots Environmental Education in Port Washington, N.Y., a nonprofit group that studies the links between the environment and public health, said she had been contacted by a number of parents worried about synthetic turf.

“They want answers,” she said. “They want to know whether it’s safe, whether they should continue to allow their kids to play on it.”

In Westchester, the county’s Legacy Program, an open-space preservation fund, has committed close to $25 million and built eight turf and three natural grass fields, with several more planned. County health officials said they had received only a couple of calls on the fields’ safety.

Several parents in the county involved in the installations said the only concerns they were aware of were financial — whether the fields, which cost $500,000 to $1 million each, were worth it.

In White Plains, which has one field and is installing two more, Arne M. Abramowitz, the city’s parks commissioner, said he had not heard of any health concerns.

There are more than 50 synthetic turf fields in Connecticut, including in Westport, Stamford and Greenwich.

source: the new york times