164 N.J. Athletic Fields May Be Unsafe And Too Expensive, And Officials Want Action

Reports saying that 164 athletic fields may be unsafe for kids have compelled school officials from across New Jersey to demand action. Some reports have even cited a possible cancer risk.

The New Jersey School Boards Association on Wednesday announced that it will assist local boards of education in exploring possible legal action against a company that allegedly sold artificial turf fields to schools across the state with full knowledge that the product was defective, according to a press release.

In addition, NJSBA Executive Director Lawrence S. Feinsod expressed support for state lawmakers’ demands that the Attorney General investigate the company. The legislators made their comments following a series of articles by NJ Advance Media, which operates nj.com.

“The news reports should anger anyone concerned about corporate responsibility, the health of students, and the preservation of limited resources,” Feinsod said in the release. “They allege fraud and deception that bilked taxpayers out of millions of dollars.

“We are urging school boards to have their attorneys contact NJSBA’s general counsel, who will assist districts in identifying and coordinating legal action.”

NJ Advance Media reported that as early as 2006 executives of the company, FieldTurf, “became aware the turf, known as Duraspine, was cracking, splitting and breaking apart, long before it should, and long before the public had been promised.” Schools and municipalities “have had to replace their expensive turf fields far sooner than expected and often earlier than promised.”

One-hundred sixty-four such fields were installed in New Jersey, NJ Advance Media reported.

Members of Congress, meanwhile, demanded an independent federal investigation last year into the health risks from children's playgrounds and artificial turf fields made with crumb rubber, according to an ESPN report on the alleged health risks associated with the fields.

ESPN noted that Amy Griffin, a former U.S. women's national team goalkeeper who has served as University of Washington's goalkeeper coach, started gathering a list in 2014 of athletes who had played on crumb-rubber synthetic turf and had been diagnosed with cancer.

Her list of athletes with cancer who have played on synthetic turf stood at 200 athletes in 2015, 158 of whom are soccer players. Of those soccer players, 101 are goalkeepers. Eighty of the athletes on Griffin's list have some form of lymphoma, according to the report.

A professor at the University of Stirling also has identified cancer-causing chemicals in crumb samples from artificial turf soccer fields, according to a Forbes report.

In public statements, the company has denied allegations of fraud and said problems with the turf have not affected player safety, according to NJ Advance Media.

FieldTurf, however, was quoted as saying in the ESPN report that more than 50 studies have found these fields safe and/or cited "low levels of concern."

Darren Gill, vice president of marketing for Field Turf, also told ESPN: "We are 100 percent confident in what the available data tells us ... that anyone using our products should rest assured there are no valid health concerns tied to artificial turf."

You can read the whole nj.com report by clicking here.

Patch file photo