Letter: Rubber Tire Fields Not Right For Fairfield

Dear Director of Parks and Recreation Anthony Calabrese and other concerned parties,

I am writing in response to your request for input on the athletic fields and future usage by Fairfield’s children.

As you know from several years ago, when the RTM approved funds to replace the artificial turf fields at Tomlinson and Warde in 2018, I have grave concerns about the safety of crumb rubber tire fields due to the high amount of turf bugs that are generated, and then potentially inhaled or ingested by children athletes.

There are 52 known carcinogenic chemicals in crumb tire artificial turf.

I once sat next to a PhD who was the lobbyist for the crumb rubber artificial turf tree group in Hartford, and she had done her thesis on an analysis that there were not enough of these chemicals contained in average exposure to cause cancer. In other words, she had purposely written her thesis to make her employable as a lobbyist for the industry.

Such is the nature of industry corrupted science.

We already have enough of a toxic burden in Fairfield, thanks to the robust history of highly toxic industries that were housed here in the past. No amount of soil remediation, or plastic barriers, can make up for the fact that this area contained a battery factory, gold refinery and munitions plant — to name the industries of which I am personally aware.

We know this is a huge issue because dredging our streams and ponds yields sludge with a highly toxic load.

Let’s not add to the burden on Fairfield’s children by turning every field into a turf bug-filled toxic dump.

How about digging down and laying water-permeable fabric with a thick gravel bed above and then placing natural turf fields above this.

Surely we can find a reputable company to give an estimate on well-constructed, naturally draining fields?

Thank you for listening,

Hannah Gale

Representative Town Meeting District 6