6 Phillies Die Of Same Cancer: New Report Says Toxins Were In Old Turf

PHILADELPHIA, PA — At a time when cigarette smoke clouded press boxes and club boxes, the Broad Street Bullies played next door, and powder blues were donned by the Phils unironically, one of the most notorious ballparks in the world was in south Philadelphia. It was a different age indeed, but for more than the cigar chomping fanatics in Rose and Schmidt jerseys, holding golf pencils and scorecards as they prowled above the bowels of a stadium so violent and anarchic it had its own court and its own prison.

Veterans Stadium, for all its grit and guts and glory, harbored a dark secret: chemicals in the artificial turf, the AstroTurf once proclaimed as a futuristic technological wonder, known to cause cancer and other deletrious effects. And not just any chemicals, but the "forever" chemicals called per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known collectively as PFAS, already infamous in the Philadelphia area and sparking scandal in communities around the country.

That's according to a new investigative report from the Inquirer, run by reporters who purchased souvenir samples of the old Vet turf online and commissioned diagnostics through a local Eurofins Environmental Testing laboratory.

It's the first study of its kind definitively linking PFAS to the Vet's playing surface, which has already been under scrutiny and faded from style for a generation due to the number of joint injuries it caused players.

Six former Phillies who played at the Vet, which was the home of both the Phillies and the Eagles from 1971 to 2003, have all died from glioblastoma, a form of aggressive brain cancer. The names are so familiar to those of that broken golden age of Philadelphia baseball: Darren Daulton, David West, John Vukovich, John Oates, Ken Brett, and Tug McGraw.

A 2017 New York Times article published in the wake of the death of "Dutch" Daulton, the hero of the iconic 1993 NL-pennant winning club, quoted multiple Phillies who were concerned then about the same thing that the report published this week proves.

"Some former Phillies wonder whether chemicals in those early versions of synthetic turf could have increased the risk of brain cancer," the article notes. "But scientists say they know of no research that supports that theory."

Despite the lack of theory then, the rumors persisted through the years in part due to the widespread, if unexamined, connection between so many world class athletes dying young and long careers on the turf. Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter died from the same cancer at 57, and longtime outfielder Bobby Murcer died from it at 62.

And it's not just brain cancer that is connected to Veterans Stadium and baseball players. A 2013 study commissioned after Daulton's original diagnosis examined 533 Phillies who played in the Vet. The cancer rate amongst that group was three times that of the average American man, the study found.

Awareness of the issue has grown rapidly in the past several years. In 2022, the U.S. Enviromental Protection Agency took the strongest action on PFAS regulation yet when they reduced the acceptable drinking water standard from 70 parts per trillion (ppt) to 0.02 for PFOS chemicals, and 0.004 for PFOA.

PFAS, the general term encompassing all types of these substances, are not new. They've been around since the 1940s to make products resistant to water and heat such as cookware, carpets, furniture fabrics, and more. They're perhaps most well known among health and environmental activists for their inclusion in firefighting foams, which has leaked into groundwater in many areas, including at Naval Air Station Willow Grove in Montgomery County.

Advocates and organizers have been pointing to the consequences of PFAS for some time, particularly where they believe clusters of illness have emerged, like at Willow Grove. U.S. manufacturers have phased out PFAS and PFOS, once an attractive choice for packaging and other products. A few uses remain, but due to a lack of regulation at their introduction, they're now ubiquitous in the environment.

Just five Major League Baseball parks still use artificial turf today, although it is still the playing surface at 14 NFL stadiums.