Kids Soccer Blur

Health Impact News Editor Comments

NBC News recently ran an investigative report on artificial turf, and its potential link to cancer. Given how many children in America play on artificial turf, we felt it was worthwhile to alert our readers to this story.

How safe is the artificial turf your child plays on?

by 
Today Health

Excerpts:

Artificial turf fields are now everywhere in the United States, from high schools to multi-million-dollar athletic complexes. As any parent or player who has been on them can testify, the tiny black rubber crumbs of which the fields are made — chunks of old tires — get everywhere. In players’ uniforms, in their hair, in their cleats.

But for goalkeepers, whose bodies are in constant contact with the turf, it can be far worse. In practices and games, they make hundreds of dives, and each plunge sends a black cloud of tire pellets into the air. The granules get into their cuts and scrapes, and into their mouths. Griffin wondered if those crumbs – which have been known to contain carcinogens and chemicals – were making players sick.

Griffin has compiled a list of 38 American soccer players — 34 of them goalies who have been diagnosed with cancer. Blood cancers like lymphoma and leukemia dominate the list.

Read the Full Story here.