- Aug 16, 2003
- 8,274
- 12,242
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/how-safe-artificial-turf-your-child-plays-n220166
How Safe Is the Artificial Turf Your Child Plays On?
Soccer coach Amy Griffin was in a Seattle hospital visiting a young goalie who was receiving chemotherapy when a nurse said something that made the hair on Griffin's neck stand up.
It was 2009. Two young female goalies Griffin knew had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Griffin, associate head coach for the University of Washington's women's soccer team, had started to visit the women and other athletes in local hospitals, helping them pass the time during chemo with war stories from her three decades of coaching.
That day, the nurse looked down at the woman Griffin was sitting with and said, "Don't tell me you guys are goalkeepers. You're the fourth goalkeeper I've hooked up this week."
Soccer coach Amy Griffin was in a Seattle hospital visiting a young goalie who was receiving chemotherapy when a nurse said something that made the hair on Griffin's neck stand up.
It was 2009. Two young female goalies Griffin knew had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Griffin, associate head coach for the University of Washington's women's soccer team, had started to visit the women and other athletes in local hospitals, helping them pass the time during chemo with war stories from her three decades of coaching.
That day, the nurse looked down at the woman Griffin was sitting with and said, "Don't tell me you guys are goalkeepers. You're the fourth goalkeeper I've hooked up this week."
How Safe is the Artificial Turf on Your Child's Sports Field? 5:29
Later, the young woman with the chemo needle in her arm would say, "I just have a feeling it has something to do with those black dots."
Artificial turf fields are now everywhere in the United States, from high schools to multi-million-dollar athletic complexes. As any parent or player who has been on them can testify, the tiny black rubber crumbs of which the fields are made -- chunks of old tires -- get everywhere. In players' uniforms, in their hair, in their cleats.
But for goalkeepers, whose bodies are in constant contact with the turf, it can be far worse. In practices and games, they make hundreds of dives, and each plunge sends a black cloud of tire pellets into the air. The granules get into their cuts and scrapes, and into their mouths. Griffin wondered if those crumbs - which have been known to contain carcinogens and chemicals - were making players sick.
"I've coached for 26, 27 years," she said. "My first 15 years, I never heard anything about this. All of a sudden it seems to be a stream of kids."
Since then, Griffin has compiled a list of 38American soccer players -- 34 of them goalies - who have been diagnosed with cancer. At least a dozen played in Washington, but the geographic spread is nationwide. Blood cancers like lymphoma and leukemia dominate the list.
No research has linked cancer to artificial turf. Griffin collected names through personal experience with sick players, and acknowledges that her list is not a scientific data set. But it's enough to make her ask whether crumb rubber artificial turf, a product that has been rolled out in tens of thousands of parks, playgrounds, schools and stadiums in the U.S., is safe for the athletes and kids who play on it. Others across the country are raising similar questions, arguing that the now-ubiquitous material, made out of synthetic fibers and scrap tire -- which can contain benzene, carbon black and lead, among other substances -- has not been adequately tested. Few studies have measured the risk of ingesting crumb rubber orally, for example.
NBC's own extensive investigation, which included a review of the relevant studies and interviews with scientists and industry professionals, was unable to find any agreement over whether crumb turf had ill effects on young athletes, or even whether the product had been sufficiently tested.
The Synthetic Turf Council, an industry group, says that the evidence collected so far by scientists and state and federal agencies proves that artificial turf is safe.
"We've got 14 studies on our website that says we can find no negative health effects," said Dr. Davis Lee, a Turf Council board member. While those studies aren't "absolutely conclusive," he added, "There's certainly a preponderance of evidence to this point that says, in fact, it is safe."
Environmental advocates want the Environmental Protection Agency and the Consumer Product Safety Commission to take a closer look. While both the CPSC and the EPA performed studies over five years ago, both agencies recently backtracked on their assurances the material was safe, calling their studies "limited." But while the EPA told NBC News in a statement that "more testing needs to be done," the agency also said it considered artificial turf to be a "state and local decision," and would not be commissioning further research.
"There's a host of concerns that are being raised," said Jeff Ruch, executive director of PEER, an environmental watchdog group. PEER has lodged complaints against both agencies. "None have risen to the level of regulatory interest."
The EPA refused multiple requests from NBC News for an interview, and declined to expand on their statement that "more testing needs to be done."
From 'Chemgrass' to crumb rubber
Invented in 1964 by Monsanto, the first iterations of artificial turf were little more than synthetic 'grass' laid on top of concrete. First called "ChemGrass," the product became famous as "AstroTurf" after it was installed in Houston's Astrodome in 1966. Some athletes, however, complained that the thin, synthetic surface made for hard landings.
By the early 2000s, a better form of artificial turf had emerged. Called styrene butadiene rubber, or "crumb rubber," the new turf contained tiny black crumbs made from pulverized car tires, poured in between the fake grass blades. The rubber infill gave the field more bounce, cushioned the impact for athletes, and helped prevent serious injuries like concussions.
Since then, the material has become increasingly popular. Municipalities across the country have floated multi-million-dollar bonds to pay for new fields. Local leaders, some facility managers and companies say that turf costs less than natural grass to maintain, and can withstand heavy use year-round.
Today, according to figures from the Synthetic Turf Council, more than 11,000 synthetic turf sports fields are in use in the U.S. Most of them are crumb rubber. Crumb rubber infill is also used in children's playgrounds across the country.
Crumb rubber is an "environmental success story," said Dan Zielinski, spokesperson for the Rubber Manufacturers Association.
Not only have turf fields diverted millions of tires from landfills, said Zielinski, but they don't require fertilizer or pesticides, and can save municipalities hundreds of thousands of gallons of water each year.
"There are benefits here," Zielinski said. "The potential risk, as we know it today, is extremely low."
'Turf Bugs'
Jordan Swarthout, 22, started playing soccer when she was 4. She became a goalie at 9, already addicted to the "adrenaline rush" that comes each time the ball hurtles toward the net.
By 11, Swarthout, who grew up in Sumner, Washington, about 45 minutes south of Seattle, was playing almost entirely on crumb rubber turf.
When she and her team asked what was in the turf, "old tires" was the best answer she got. "We always wondered what was underneath it," she said. "What we couldn't see."
But the smell that hangs over crumb rubber fields - the scent of tires baking in the sun -- became as familiar to Swarthout as her endless goalie drills.
She even got used to the "turf bugs," as she and her teammates called them.
During high school, she played on multiple teams at once, with two-hour practices five days a week, and games at least twice a week. Every day, she tried to clean the black rubber pellets, the "turf bugs," out of the abrasions and burns she suffered as a goalkeeper on turf. Every day, to the chagrin of her mother, she shook them from her clothes and cleats onto the laundry room floor. She brushed them out of her hair, and spit them out of her mouth.
"The little black beads," she said. "In the games and practices they'd get in my eyes, they'd get in my mouth, they'd get in my nose. My mom would get so mad at me because I'd go to the bathroom to take a shower, and the turf bugs would be everywhere."
Jordan's mother, Suzie Swarthout, said her daughter probably swallowed hundreds of tire crumbs a year.
Yet neither Jordan nor Suzie worried much about it. "We all had the confidence that the proper steps had been taken, the research had been done, that it had been proved to be safe," said Suzie.
"We all know how bad tires are," said Jordan. "You don't eat tires. Yet we were. You'd get it in your mouth and you wouldn't think about it."
In 2013, after more than a year of mysterious thyroid problems, a biopsy determined that the star athlete had stage three Hodgkin lymphoma.
It was one night this past May, months after doctors declared her daughter to be in remission, when Suzie Swarthout saw Amy Griffin's story on a local news broadcast.
"I immediately after the newscast emailed [Amy] and said, "You could add another subject to your statistics,'" recalled Suzie.
Griffin said that since she first started collecting names of goalies with cancer and other diseases, she's had people like the Swarthouts contact her, and her list has grown.
Griffin and the Swarthouts said that they know it's nearly impossible to figure out the origin of a disease like cancer, and that young people are exposed to hundreds of carcinogens.
But, said Jordan Swarthout, "If we have it available to us to research this, why shouldn't we? Why can't we?"
'Every tire is different'
One of the problems with researching the potential health hazards of crumb rubber fields is the sheer variety of materials used in the product.
Tens of thousands of different tires from different brands may be used in one field. According to the EPA, mercury, lead, benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and arsenic, among several other chemicals, heavy metals, and carcinogens, have been found in tires.
Darren Gill, vice president of marketing for FieldTurf, a prominent turf company, said that those ingredients might worry consumers, but the manufacturing process ensures that their product is safe.
"If you look at the ingredients that go into a car tire, some people take those ingredients and turn them into health concerns," Gill said. "But after the vulcanization process, those ingredients are inert."
Industry leaders say while they encourage additional research, studies have shown that the substances found in crumb rubber are not at levels high enough to be at risk to children or athletes.
"There are certainly chemicals in small amounts [in turf] as in many other things," said Lee, of the Synthetic Turf Council. "You could evaluate most any material out there and you're going to find at some level, some chemical that might cause concern."
"The levels as they exist in tires, ground up tires, are very, very low," he added. "The EPA has not found adverse health effect. Several state organizations have investigated it quite thoroughly."
Existing research has attempted to measure the risk of exposure to harmful chemicals through the inhalation of gasses and particulate matter, as well as skin contact.
Studies have found that crumb rubber fields emit gases that can be inhaled. Turf fields can become very hot -- 10 to 15 degrees hotter than the ambient temperature - increasing the chances that volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and chemicals can "off-gas," or leach into the air.
How Safe Is the Artificial Turf Your Child Plays On?
Soccer coach Amy Griffin was in a Seattle hospital visiting a young goalie who was receiving chemotherapy when a nurse said something that made the hair on Griffin's neck stand up.
It was 2009. Two young female goalies Griffin knew had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Griffin, associate head coach for the University of Washington's women's soccer team, had started to visit the women and other athletes in local hospitals, helping them pass the time during chemo with war stories from her three decades of coaching.
That day, the nurse looked down at the woman Griffin was sitting with and said, "Don't tell me you guys are goalkeepers. You're the fourth goalkeeper I've hooked up this week."
Soccer coach Amy Griffin was in a Seattle hospital visiting a young goalie who was receiving chemotherapy when a nurse said something that made the hair on Griffin's neck stand up.
It was 2009. Two young female goalies Griffin knew had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Griffin, associate head coach for the University of Washington's women's soccer team, had started to visit the women and other athletes in local hospitals, helping them pass the time during chemo with war stories from her three decades of coaching.
That day, the nurse looked down at the woman Griffin was sitting with and said, "Don't tell me you guys are goalkeepers. You're the fourth goalkeeper I've hooked up this week."
How Safe is the Artificial Turf on Your Child's Sports Field? 5:29
Later, the young woman with the chemo needle in her arm would say, "I just have a feeling it has something to do with those black dots."
Artificial turf fields are now everywhere in the United States, from high schools to multi-million-dollar athletic complexes. As any parent or player who has been on them can testify, the tiny black rubber crumbs of which the fields are made -- chunks of old tires -- get everywhere. In players' uniforms, in their hair, in their cleats.
But for goalkeepers, whose bodies are in constant contact with the turf, it can be far worse. In practices and games, they make hundreds of dives, and each plunge sends a black cloud of tire pellets into the air. The granules get into their cuts and scrapes, and into their mouths. Griffin wondered if those crumbs - which have been known to contain carcinogens and chemicals - were making players sick.
"I've coached for 26, 27 years," she said. "My first 15 years, I never heard anything about this. All of a sudden it seems to be a stream of kids."
Since then, Griffin has compiled a list of 38American soccer players -- 34 of them goalies - who have been diagnosed with cancer. At least a dozen played in Washington, but the geographic spread is nationwide. Blood cancers like lymphoma and leukemia dominate the list.
No research has linked cancer to artificial turf. Griffin collected names through personal experience with sick players, and acknowledges that her list is not a scientific data set. But it's enough to make her ask whether crumb rubber artificial turf, a product that has been rolled out in tens of thousands of parks, playgrounds, schools and stadiums in the U.S., is safe for the athletes and kids who play on it. Others across the country are raising similar questions, arguing that the now-ubiquitous material, made out of synthetic fibers and scrap tire -- which can contain benzene, carbon black and lead, among other substances -- has not been adequately tested. Few studies have measured the risk of ingesting crumb rubber orally, for example.
NBC's own extensive investigation, which included a review of the relevant studies and interviews with scientists and industry professionals, was unable to find any agreement over whether crumb turf had ill effects on young athletes, or even whether the product had been sufficiently tested.
The Synthetic Turf Council, an industry group, says that the evidence collected so far by scientists and state and federal agencies proves that artificial turf is safe.
"We've got 14 studies on our website that says we can find no negative health effects," said Dr. Davis Lee, a Turf Council board member. While those studies aren't "absolutely conclusive," he added, "There's certainly a preponderance of evidence to this point that says, in fact, it is safe."
Environmental advocates want the Environmental Protection Agency and the Consumer Product Safety Commission to take a closer look. While both the CPSC and the EPA performed studies over five years ago, both agencies recently backtracked on their assurances the material was safe, calling their studies "limited." But while the EPA told NBC News in a statement that "more testing needs to be done," the agency also said it considered artificial turf to be a "state and local decision," and would not be commissioning further research.
"There's a host of concerns that are being raised," said Jeff Ruch, executive director of PEER, an environmental watchdog group. PEER has lodged complaints against both agencies. "None have risen to the level of regulatory interest."
The EPA refused multiple requests from NBC News for an interview, and declined to expand on their statement that "more testing needs to be done."
From 'Chemgrass' to crumb rubber
Invented in 1964 by Monsanto, the first iterations of artificial turf were little more than synthetic 'grass' laid on top of concrete. First called "ChemGrass," the product became famous as "AstroTurf" after it was installed in Houston's Astrodome in 1966. Some athletes, however, complained that the thin, synthetic surface made for hard landings.
By the early 2000s, a better form of artificial turf had emerged. Called styrene butadiene rubber, or "crumb rubber," the new turf contained tiny black crumbs made from pulverized car tires, poured in between the fake grass blades. The rubber infill gave the field more bounce, cushioned the impact for athletes, and helped prevent serious injuries like concussions.
Since then, the material has become increasingly popular. Municipalities across the country have floated multi-million-dollar bonds to pay for new fields. Local leaders, some facility managers and companies say that turf costs less than natural grass to maintain, and can withstand heavy use year-round.
Today, according to figures from the Synthetic Turf Council, more than 11,000 synthetic turf sports fields are in use in the U.S. Most of them are crumb rubber. Crumb rubber infill is also used in children's playgrounds across the country.
Crumb rubber is an "environmental success story," said Dan Zielinski, spokesperson for the Rubber Manufacturers Association.
Not only have turf fields diverted millions of tires from landfills, said Zielinski, but they don't require fertilizer or pesticides, and can save municipalities hundreds of thousands of gallons of water each year.
"There are benefits here," Zielinski said. "The potential risk, as we know it today, is extremely low."
'Turf Bugs'
Jordan Swarthout, 22, started playing soccer when she was 4. She became a goalie at 9, already addicted to the "adrenaline rush" that comes each time the ball hurtles toward the net.
By 11, Swarthout, who grew up in Sumner, Washington, about 45 minutes south of Seattle, was playing almost entirely on crumb rubber turf.
When she and her team asked what was in the turf, "old tires" was the best answer she got. "We always wondered what was underneath it," she said. "What we couldn't see."
But the smell that hangs over crumb rubber fields - the scent of tires baking in the sun -- became as familiar to Swarthout as her endless goalie drills.
She even got used to the "turf bugs," as she and her teammates called them.
During high school, she played on multiple teams at once, with two-hour practices five days a week, and games at least twice a week. Every day, she tried to clean the black rubber pellets, the "turf bugs," out of the abrasions and burns she suffered as a goalkeeper on turf. Every day, to the chagrin of her mother, she shook them from her clothes and cleats onto the laundry room floor. She brushed them out of her hair, and spit them out of her mouth.
"The little black beads," she said. "In the games and practices they'd get in my eyes, they'd get in my mouth, they'd get in my nose. My mom would get so mad at me because I'd go to the bathroom to take a shower, and the turf bugs would be everywhere."
Jordan's mother, Suzie Swarthout, said her daughter probably swallowed hundreds of tire crumbs a year.
Yet neither Jordan nor Suzie worried much about it. "We all had the confidence that the proper steps had been taken, the research had been done, that it had been proved to be safe," said Suzie.
"We all know how bad tires are," said Jordan. "You don't eat tires. Yet we were. You'd get it in your mouth and you wouldn't think about it."
In 2013, after more than a year of mysterious thyroid problems, a biopsy determined that the star athlete had stage three Hodgkin lymphoma.
It was one night this past May, months after doctors declared her daughter to be in remission, when Suzie Swarthout saw Amy Griffin's story on a local news broadcast.
"I immediately after the newscast emailed [Amy] and said, "You could add another subject to your statistics,'" recalled Suzie.
Griffin said that since she first started collecting names of goalies with cancer and other diseases, she's had people like the Swarthouts contact her, and her list has grown.
Griffin and the Swarthouts said that they know it's nearly impossible to figure out the origin of a disease like cancer, and that young people are exposed to hundreds of carcinogens.
But, said Jordan Swarthout, "If we have it available to us to research this, why shouldn't we? Why can't we?"
'Every tire is different'
One of the problems with researching the potential health hazards of crumb rubber fields is the sheer variety of materials used in the product.
Tens of thousands of different tires from different brands may be used in one field. According to the EPA, mercury, lead, benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and arsenic, among several other chemicals, heavy metals, and carcinogens, have been found in tires.
Darren Gill, vice president of marketing for FieldTurf, a prominent turf company, said that those ingredients might worry consumers, but the manufacturing process ensures that their product is safe.
"If you look at the ingredients that go into a car tire, some people take those ingredients and turn them into health concerns," Gill said. "But after the vulcanization process, those ingredients are inert."
Industry leaders say while they encourage additional research, studies have shown that the substances found in crumb rubber are not at levels high enough to be at risk to children or athletes.
"There are certainly chemicals in small amounts [in turf] as in many other things," said Lee, of the Synthetic Turf Council. "You could evaluate most any material out there and you're going to find at some level, some chemical that might cause concern."
"The levels as they exist in tires, ground up tires, are very, very low," he added. "The EPA has not found adverse health effect. Several state organizations have investigated it quite thoroughly."
Existing research has attempted to measure the risk of exposure to harmful chemicals through the inhalation of gasses and particulate matter, as well as skin contact.
Studies have found that crumb rubber fields emit gases that can be inhaled. Turf fields can become very hot -- 10 to 15 degrees hotter than the ambient temperature - increasing the chances that volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and chemicals can "off-gas," or leach into the air.
Last edited: