Now They Decide to Investigate?

New artificial turf field at Sage Avenue Park aka Herndon Park. Sort of dumb to be putting concrete near where people will be falling.

Artificial turf is made with plastic grass filled with rubber crumbs from old tires. The loose tiny rubber particles go flying into the air as people run and fall on the field.

The artificial turf rubber fields at Herndon Park cost taxpayers $1,672,080.

But is playing on rubber crumbs safe? It appears leaders have decided to let kids be the guinea pigs...

Rubber crumbs are made from recycled tires that can contain about 30 different hazardous substances including lead [1].

A leading soccer player says playing on artificial turf is a "Nightmare." Some players say injuries from falling on plastic grass and rubber crumbs are far worse than falling on natural grass and dirt [2].

Turf fields are reported to be much hotter than natural grass fields [2]. That adds to global warming. How hot is hot? Brigham Young University recorded that their artificial turf field reached a surface temperature of 200 degrees (F) on a 98 degree day [4]. Exposing children to hotter ball fields puts them at greater risk to dehydration and overheating injuries. 

Even a soccer coach is concerned over the growing number of soccer goalies playing on artificial turf that have developed a cluster of blood and other type cancers. 

Finally, the government, apparently tired of the CDC stalling on answering the question of whether plastic and rubber artificial turf fields are safe or not are said to be starting their own investigation [3]. So nice of the health departments to START investigating into the long term health effects of playing on fields of rubber crumbs now that 10 to 20 Thousand fields of rubber crumbs have been built...

Leave it to Mobile leaders to let kids tumble hard on soccer fields made with rubber crumbs . . . rubber crumbs from tires that may contain hazardous amounts of lead and other chemicals.

Assuming the City of Mobile has to do absolutely no maintenance to the new Artificial Turf fields at Herndon Park for the next 10 years, and assuming the fields are used every weekend, what is the cost to use Herndon Park soccer fields based on the cost of installing it? The cost is $1,607 each Saturday and Sunday for Ten Years.

I certainly hope the teams using the rubber fields at Herndon Park are required to pay a significant fee to the City of Mobile each time they play on the field to help pay for their petroleumized playground. The players may end up paying much more if it turns out that rubber fields are hazardous to human health and cause cancer and other illnesses.

I cannot believe taxpayer money keeps being wasted on parks while basic infrastructure like sidewalks and roads are crumbling and becoming dangerous to use, and parks cannot afford to empty their garbage cans. 

But when cities elect people based on their color instead of on their common sense and wise leadership, people like Fred Richardson end up in charge of making decisions with taxpayer money. Idiots of all colors are quick to vote to squander millions of dollars of taxpayer money on projects like PUBLIC ball fields made of tiny pieces of rubber tires made with hazardous materials. That is Ugly!

Crumb rubber from tires contains benzothiazole, which “exerts acute toxicity and is a respiratory irritant and a dermal sensitizer. Carbon black, which makes up 20-40% of crumb rubber, has been identified as a CANCER CAUSING chemical by California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.  Another concern is allergic reactions to the latex in crumb rubber [4].

The good news is all these soccer players lobbying to get the City of Mobile to install rubber crumb fields will be the ones suffering from the long term health effects.

[1] http://www.usatoday.com/story//2015/03/15/artificial-turf-health-safety-studies/24727111/

[2] http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/artificial-turf-debate/us-soccer-star-abby-wambach-playing-turf-nightmare-n371906

[3] http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2016/02/13/government-finally-to-look-into-possible-link-between-artificial-turf-and-cancer/#3fd3aeae30cf

[4] http://www.ceh.org/get-involved/take-action/a-cocktail-of-harmful-chemicals-in-artificial-turf-infill/