In fake grass, some see real threat
Tests reveal lead in school fields
For two decades, state public health officials have waged a massive campaign to eliminate children's exposure to lead, yet some specialists are concerned that the toxic element may have found its way into schools in the form of artificial turf fields.
While industry officials maintain the fields are safe, the Globe recently commissioned tests of artificial grass at several city and suburban high schools in Massachusetts and found varying amounts of lead in the artificial surfaces.
The fake green grass rolled out in the fall at Concord-Carlisle High School's football field at a cost of $3.8 million tested positive for lead in the Globe's investigation, as did Boston's Saunders Stadium, Lincoln Sudbury High School, and Charlestown High School.
The football field at Concord-Carlisle High contained nearly 300 parts per million lead in the Globe-commissioned test. The US Environmental Protection Agency's standard for bare soil in children's play areas is a maximum of 400 parts per million, though the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has long recommended "the elimination of all nonessential uses of lead" because of the potential health hazards it poses.
Stanley Green, the chief executive of Sprinturf, which manufactured the field, said tests his company commissioned on the Concord-Carlisle field by a lab in Tennessee showed it contained .05 parts per million lead, a much lower level than the Globe-commissioned test.
"We've never had anything in the field that has caused harm to anyone," Green said. "There's never been any incident of anyone getting sick or having ill effects associated with artificial turf fields."
With the increasing popularity of the fields in the professional and collegiate ranks, cities and towns across the state have been building artificial turf fields at a rapid clip, because they are durable and can accommodate nearly year-round athletic activity. But some communities are concerned about the possible health problems the fields pose.
Constructed of plastic and a simulated dirt made of discarded old tires (as many as 10,000 in a single field), some fields contain lead in levels higher than communities anticipated. An artificial turf field in East Harlem, N.Y., was slated for removal last month when local health officials determined it contained 500 parts per million lead.
"There's no safe level of lead; let's be clear on that," said Don Mays, senior director of product safety at the Consumer's Union, publisher of Consumer Reports. The Consumer's Union and the CDC called for additional testing of artificial turf fields after lead levels at two older fields in New Jersey forced their closure in the summer.
"What we've seen is lead creeping back into products we assumed didn't have lead in them," Mays said, "like vinyl products and playing fields."
Problems with lead surfaced last year, when public health workers measuring run-off at a landfill in New Jersey found high lead concentrations in two playing fields nearby. Local officials closed both out of fear that athletes were swallowing or inhaling lead dust emanating from worn plastic grass.
The CDC issued an official health advisory in June saying the "potentially unhealthy levels of lead dust" found on the New Jersey fields raised concern and warranted additional testing. The Consumers Union has also advocated for additional testing of the fields.
For years, the CDC has called lead dust one of the biggest known health hazards to children and has funneled millions into reducing it in the environment. The agency has said that age, weathering, exposure to sunlight, and wear and tear can cause dust to form on older or well-used fields.
"At this time, CDC does not yet understand the potential risks associated with exposure to dust from worn artificial turf," the CDC advisory said. People playing on dusty turf fields should undertake "aggressive hand and body washing" for at least 20 seconds with warm water afterward and launder team uniforms after playing on the fields.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, the national agency with the power to recall products found to be dangerous or unhealthy, evaluated the artificial turf in the New Jersey fields and found that "young children are not at risk from exposure to lead in these fields." The commission asked artificial turf manufacturers to voluntarily reduce lead in their product. The leading manufacturers agreed to lower lead used to color synthetic turf to 300 parts per million by the year 2011 and to 100 parts per million or less by the year 2012.
Previously constructed fields, however, would not be affected.
Mary Jean Brown, chief of the CDC's lead poisoning prevention branch in Atlanta, said preschool children are most susceptible to lead poisoning. In recent years, the average lead level in youth blood testing has dropped from 17 micrograms per deciliter in the 1970s to a current level of 1.2 micrograms (The CDC considers a blood lead level of 10 to be of concern.)
Brown said high levels of lead in children's blood in the past have been attributed to paint and the use of the element as an additive in gas (which was banned in 1996). Lead in lower levels might exist in artificial turf and could be ingested or inhaled by children, and while not a dire health threat to children or adults alike, precautions should still be taken, she said.
The American Academy of Pediatricians has said there is no safe level of lead exposure and suggests levels no higher than trace amounts - 40 parts per million - in soil.
"We always have to be concerned about new lead added into our environment," said Helen Binns, a member of the academy who specializes in child lead poisoning. "We need to look seriously at the choices that are made and what they would introduce."
Excessive lead exposure has been linked to severe mental retardation, stunted growth, and death.
Suzanne Condon, Massachusetts associate commissioner for public health, said it's up to local officials to know what's in artificial turf before they buy it. The state has no plans to test fields.
"If you're a parent and you have concerns, you can ask [local officials] what the artificial turf is made of," Condon said.
In Concord, town manager Christopher Whelan said in the fall that he and other local officials relied on information from consultant, John Amato of Westford, before buying and installing a field manufactured by Sprinturf in Wayne, Pa. After questions arose about the fields in New Jersey, which were not manufactured by Sprinturf, Whelan said he questioned Amato about lead in the school's new field.
"We were assured it wasn't an issue," he said.
Amato, a member of the Synthetic Turf Council, an industry group, dismissed concerns about lead in an interview. Synthetic turf is an off-shoot of the carpet industry, and carpeting often contains low levels of lead that cause no public health threat. So do other plastics, such as twisting telephone cords. Any lead found in artificial turf grass is inert and encapsulated in plastic, he said.
"It's not a health risk for children," Amato said of the fields. "These things get blown out of proportion."
The Globe independently tested turf samples from area schools after a Newton activist, Guive Mirfendereski offered test results from the turf that showed lead levels at the high school in excess of 13,000 parts per million in the fall. Sprinturf's chief executive Green then conducted tests, which he says showed negligible traces of lead. Faced with the conflicting information, the Globe sent turf samples to a local lead screener and laboratory for independent testing.
Mirfendereski, a Newton lawyer whose son plays soccer, has been an outspoken opponent of artificial turf fields in Newton and elsewhere, calling them "a point of worry and a matter of public health." He has a blog dedicated to the subject, www.SynTurf.org, and said he has asked the state to test the fields.
The lead dust "ends up in the water and soil [and on children] and that ought to be of concern," Mirfendereski said. "Why does this product get a pass?"
Lead in artificial turf can be avoided without any extra cost, industry specialists said. FieldTurf, the largest artificial turf manufacturer in North America, sells lead-free artificial turf. Darren Gill , a company spokesman, said lead helps brighten a field's colors and that many cities and towns order them because they like to see a sports team logo on the field in as brightly colored colors as possible.
"These are custom-made products," he said. "We offer lead-free fields because customers have concerns." 