Did the City demand independent studies of the synthetic turf safety?

Neighborhoods, Northside 2027, Serious Issues 1 Minute

(the latest in a series of posts on Northside 2027 and Neighborhoods)

Peter Crownfield is officially retired but spends most of his time working with students in his role as internship coordinator for the Alliance for Sustainable Communities–Lehigh Valley.

Gadfly:

This looks great.

The news article mentions a “pour-in-place surface that’s springy underfoot,” but doesn’t say any more about it. Does anyone know what this is made of? Synthetic turf fields are associated with a number of serious health and safety concerns that do not seem to be considered by the municipalities, schools, and colleges & universities that install them. The new surface may be safer if a child falls, but what happens when it starts to wear or degrade and produce toxic particles from whatever it’s made of?

Did anyone at the City demand independent studies on these questions, or did they accept the claims from the competing vendors?

Peter

Published by The Bethlehem Gadfly

Edward J. Gallagher, Bethlehem immigrant, retired, nearly 50 years as Professor of American Literature at Lehigh University, known as "Dr. G" and "Conan the Grammarian" to students, whose virtual world avatar "EdwardScholarhands" stares at you here, has reinvented himself as the Bethlehem Gadfly.

Published

One thought on “Did the City demand independent studies of the synthetic turf safety?”

  1. Although this post was referring to a solid surface, the same questions should be asked whenever the city grants permission for any entity — including BASD, Lehigh, Moravian — to install either a solid surface (playground, running track) or a synthetic turf sports field.

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