No one is profiting from this field except the synturf manufacturer

About the editor:

The October 7th vote on the Guilderland School Capital Improvement Project Loan is really difficult for me. I strongly support funding for education and appreciate the hard work of the school board, but I will vote “no” on this school loan.

The project includes many much-needed improvements to the school, but the installation of an artificial turf field should be removed from the retention measure. I will be supporting a revised budget without the $ 2.5 million Synturf field spending.

Many schools, including Guilderland, are taking this moment, when an influx of coronavirus aid money is occurring, as an opportune time to fund projects held up by previous tight budgets, but funding Synturf is at no time a good thing. It’s not good for our community or good for our students.

Here are some of the artificial turf concerns raised by health and environmental researchers and athletes:

– Heat. Artificial turf surfaces heat up to unsafe temperatures of up to 150 degrees or more in the sun, causing burns and other heat-related problems for athletes. (Williams and Pulley, op. Cit .; ISA Sport USA “Assessment of Turf and Infill Temperature,” June 30, 2012);

– toxicity. The synthetic turf carpet and crumb rubber of an artificial turf playing field contain lead and toxic and carcinogenic chemicals that expose children to serious health risks. (National Center for Health Research Comments on CPSC [Consumer Product Safety Commission] for the financial year 2021-2022);

– Injury. Higher overall injury rates among athletes who play on artificial turf compared to natural turf have been documented by professional athletes, including the US women’s soccer team “Claiming bias, female player sue US Soccer” (Andrew Das, New York Times, March 9, 2019 p. 16. ). The soccer team has finally won the right to play World Cup matches on safer natural grass, like the men’s team does.

The President of the NFL Player’s League Association advocated natural grass pitches for all teams, citing official injury reports between 2012 and 2018. The reports showed a total of 28 percent more injuries among players playing on artificial turf; 69 percent higher non-contact ankle and foot injuries. (“NFLPA President Tretter Urges NFL Teams To Remove Artificial Turf,” Torrey Hart, Sept. 30, 2020 on Front Line Sports). US men’s soccer and the vast majority of professional baseball games are played on natural grass; and

– Disposal. With an average lifespan of eight to ten years – the Guilderland artificial turf supplier offers a 10-year guarantee on a well-manicured field – an estimated 500,000 pounds of plastic grass mat and tire crumb rubber fill will end up in a landfill. (TURI-UMASS Lowell, TURI + report + 2018). TURI is the institute for reducing toxic use.

At a time when the world is grappling with climate change, it is amazing that schools in Guilderland, a Climate Smart Community, could consider a project that would create a “heat island,” inhalable volatile organic compounds (VOCs), that need to be removed from exhaust gases or organic soil, requires regular chemical treatment, disperses many thousands of pounds of microplastics into the environment annually, prevents groundwater discharges, contributes to flooding, contributes to global warming and requires large-scale disposal as the field deteriorates Wasting amounts of mostly petroleum every decade.

Apart from the artificial turf manufacturer, nobody benefits from this field, especially not our students, who have a whole life ahead of them after school sport.

Please vote “No” to the bond of the GCSD Capital Improvement Project and support a revised budget that does not include artificial turf.

Frank Porter

Altamont

Editor’s note: Fran Porter is part of the Plastics-Free Future group that formed on-site, inspired by a Bennington College course taught by Judith Enck.

source https://www.bisayanews.com/2021/10/01/no-one-is-profiting-from-this-field-except-the-synturf-manufacturer/