www.SynTurf.org

LEED’s counting of artificial turf as “green” is problematic. SynTurf.org, Newton, Mass. June 27, 2010. The U.S. Green Building Council's LEED is a rating and certification system, which gives points to buildings according to sustainability of sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation and design. ‘LEED’ stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental design. In a report conducted by Environment and Human Health, Inc (EHHI), North Haven, Connecticut ( http://www.ehhi.org/leed/ ) calls on LEED to pay more attention to human health issues. The report is called The Green Building Debate: LEED Certification Where Energy Efficiency Collides with Human Health. It is available at  http://www.ehhi.org/reports/leed/LEED_report_0510.pdf .

According to a news story in Kansas City Star (June 14, 2010), the EHHI report identified “several health threats that are overlooked by the LEED rating system. These health threats fall into two different categories: indoor air quality and drinking water. The use of artificial turf was also identified as a third health threat but is in a category of its own.” “EHHI's concerns with drinking water include plastics, bisphenol-A (BPA), PVC and phthalates, and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). While a building can earn points for its water management systems, there is nothing in place to address the quality of the water used in LEED certified buildings.” “The use of artificial turf is also problematic. Although artificial turf has come a long way since the 1970s from an aesthetics standpoint, it is still toxic. Many types of artificial turf use recycled rubber tires (crumb rubber) and this can cause a multitude of health problems. EHHI's analysis of the crumb rubber shows that it contains a bevy of chemicals including known carcinogens, neurotoxicants, and suspected endocrine disruptors. Artificial turf also adds to the heat island effect, is not biodegradable, and disposing it at the end of its useful life can be difficult at best. However, artificial turf is water efficient and thus can earn a LEED registered project up to four points in the Water Efficiency category as well as additional points in Materials and Resources and Innovation in Design.” “Overall, EHHI's concern is that consumers will translate the term LEED certified into healthy for humans and that isn’t always the case.” Source: Melissa Hincha-Ownby, “Is LEED missing something?,” in Kansas City Star, June 14, 2010 (Mother Nature Network - mnn.com), available at http://www.kansascity.com/2010/06/14/2015587/is-leed-missing-something.html

Chairs Senator Ed Meyer, Representative Richard Roy, and Members of the Environment Committee:

My name is Nancy Alderman.  I am President of Environment and Human Health, Inc. a non-profit organization comprised of nine members who are physicians and public health professionals dedicated to protecting human health from environmental harms.

Environment and Human Health, Inc., is in strong support of Bill 924. Taxpayer's dollars should not be going into installing synthetic turf fields that can cost up to a million dollars until we know far more about the health implications from these fields.

What we presently know:

1.    We know that rubber tires contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals.

2.      We know that when you grind up these tires the chemicals and heavy metals do not disappear.

3.      We know that the tiny particles of the ground up rubber tires get into children's hair, ears, noses, shoes and socks when they play on these fields.

4.      We know that these ground up rubber tires have a lot of crumb-rubber dust that is created when they are on the fields.

5.      We know that the dust contains the same chemicals as the tires -- only now the dust is so small in size that it is capable of being breathed in deep into the lungs.

6.   We know that the CDC [Health Advisory - June 18, 2008] has recommended posting signs on the fields that say:

(1) After playing on the field, individuals are encouraged to perform aggressive hand and body washing for at least 20 seconds using soap and warm water.

(2) Clothes worn on the field should be taken off and turned inside out as soon as possible after using the field to avoid tracking contaminated dust to other places. In vehicles, people can sit on a large towel or blanket if it is not feasible to remove their clothes. These clothes, towels, and blankets should be washed separately and shoes worn on the field should be kept outside of the home.

(3) Eating while on the field or on turf product is discouraged.  Avoid contaminating drinking containers with dust and fibers from the field.  When not drinking, close them and keep them in a bag, cooler, or other covered container on the side of the field.

These things alone should cause legislators to pass this Bill.

Environment and Human Health Inc. (EHHI) is concerned about the new synthetic turf fields that are being installed by schools and towns all over this country. These fields are made of a synthetic grass like material to which large amounts of recycled ground-up rubber tires have been added as "in-fill." It is the chemicals released from the ground-up rubber tire "crumbs" as well as the dust from the tire crumbs that pose the greatest health concerns.

EHHI is a 10-member, nonprofit organization composed of physicians, public health professionals and policy experts dedicated to protecting human health from environmental harm through research, education and improving public policy. The new "synthetic turf" fields are not turf in any sense of the word. They are large surfaces, the size of football fields, covered with material derived from grinding up used rubber tires until they are the size of grains of coarse sand. These fields can cost up to $1 million apiece.

In terms of weight, there are more than 100 tons of ground-up rubber tire crumbs on each field. There is no barrier between the rubber crumbs and the athletes playing on the fields. The rubber crumbs are unstable and get into the shoes, stockings, clothing and even the hair and ears of those who play on the fields. Dust particles from these crumbs are easily inhaled.

Numerous studies have been cited in the past to justify the safety of the rubber tire crumbs that constitute the major portion of synthetic turf fields.

However, when EHHI members reviewed the findings of many of these studies, they consistently found that there would indeed be exposures to the components of the tire crumbs.

Many studies found that dust from the rubber crumbs contained carcinogens that could be inhaled into the deepest portions of the lung. Most studies indicated that there were serious limitations to their research due to insufficient safety testing of some of the components released from the tire crumbs.

Norway, Sweden and now Italy have recommended that there be no further construction of fields with rubber tire crumbs in their countries.

Norway's concern was that some people are allergic to latex, a component of rubber tires. Sweden considers rubber tire crumbs to be a hazardous substance and therefore recommends that no new fields containing them be installed, and Italy considers the rubber tire crumbs to be carcinogenic.

Because of the studies that had been done, EHHI decided to initiate a study with the testers for the state of Connecticut - the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station - to examine whether the rubber tire "crumbs" out-gassed harmful chemicals into the air or were capable of leaching into ground water.

Although many chemicals were found, the four compounds that were conclusively identified with confirmatory tests were benzothiazole; butylated hydroxyanisole; n-hexadecane; and 4-(toctyl) phenol. Approximately two dozen other chemicals were indicated at lower levels. The four chemicals found have the following reported actions:

• Benzothiazole: Skin and eye irritation, harmful if swallowed. There is no available data on cancer, mutagenic toxicity, teratogenic toxicity, or developmental toxicity.

• Butylated hydroxyanisole: Recognized carcinogen, suspected endocrine toxicant, gastrointestinal toxicant, immunotoxicant (adverse effects on the immune system), neurotoxicant (adverse effects on the nervous system), skin and sense-organ toxicant. There is no available data on cancer, mutagenic toxicity, teratogenic toxicity, or developmental toxicity.

• n-hexadecane: severe irritant based on human and animal studies. There is no available data on cancer, mutagenic toxicity, teratogenic toxicity, or developmental toxicity.

• 4-(t-octyl) phenol: corrosive and destructive to mucous membranes. There is no available data on cancer, mutagenic toxicity, teratogenic toxicity, or developmental toxicity.

People are asked by the synthetic turf manufacturers to assume that the amount of exposures from the rubber crumbs - as well as exposures from the rubber crumb dust - are insufficient to produce any health effect, irrespective of the age of the child or the number of hours, days or years that a person plays on these fields. Those who promote the safety of these fields provide no measurements in which to support these assumptions.

It is clear that children will be exposed to these rubber crumbs, their dusts and their vapors on these fields. A simple exercise in arithmetic will show the scale of the number of children/hours of exposure there would be from one synthetic turf athletic field.

To summarize, children will be exposed to recognized hazardous substances on these synthetic turf fields.

Although the health implications at this time are unclear, the evidence is sufficient to create a burden of proof of safety before more fields are installed. At the very least, more testing should be done before any new synthetic turf fields with ground-up rubber tires are installed.

Nancy Alderman is the president of Environment and Human Health Inc., North Haven, Conn.