To: The Honorable Governor Larry Hogan
The Honorable Mike Busch, Speaker, Maryland House of Delegates
The Honorable Thomas V. Mike Miller, President, Maryland Senate
The Honorable Maggie McIntosh, Chair, House Appropriations Committee
The Honorable Edward Kasemeyer, Chair, Senate Budget and Taxation Committee
cc: Members of the House Appropriations and Senate Budget and Taxation Committees
Delegate Aruna Miller
Senator Roger Manno
Subject: State funding for synthetic (artificial) turf and playgrounds (HB 505, SB 763)
As president of the National Center for Health Research (NCHR) a resident of Montgomery
County for more than 25 years, and the former Chair of the Governor’s Women’s Health
Promotion Council, I strongly support HB 505 and SB 763 to prohibit the use of state funds for
artificial turf fields and similarly dangerous playground materials. NCHR conducts research and
helps consumers and policy makers understand scientific evidence that can be used to improve
programs and policies that affect the health of adults and children. We do not accept any funds
from drug or medical device industry sources. And, as a public health expert and parent of two
children raised in Maryland, my focus is how we can keep our children safe and healthy.
Artificial turf is made from synthetic rubber, plastic, and other materials with known health risks.
For example, the widely used material known as crumb rubber includes cancer-causing agents
as well as chemicals that disrupt our bodies’ hormones. These are called endocrine-disrupting
chemicals, and studies show that they contribute to early puberty, obesity, and attention deficit
disorder. Since endocrine-disrupting chemicals have been banned from rubber duckies, teething
toys, and other products children use for a relatively short period of time, it makes no sense for
the State of Maryland to spend millions of dollars on playing fields and playgrounds that will
expose our children to those same types of banned chemicals day after day, year after year.
The artificial turf industry and those that have financial and personal ties to them tell us that
there is no clear evidence that their fields caused any child to develop cancer or any other
disease. They also state that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have declared these materials as safe for use in
playgrounds or athletic fields. Those statements are misleading. CPSC has conducted recent
workshops on the topic attended by invited scientific and public health experts, but neither CPSC
nor EPA have concluded that these products are safe.
In February 2016, the U.S. government announced a new action plan to better understand the
likely health risk of recycled tire crumb and similar artificial surfaces. This initiative involves
the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC); the Agency for Toxic Substances and
Disease registry (ATSDR); and CPSC. No results are yet available and given the anti-regulatory
focus of the current federal administration, we do not expect any new restrictions in the near
future. That makes the actions of Maryland even more important.
Meanwhile, various reliable science-based studies from the California Office of Environmental
Health and Yale University, among others, have found dozens of harmful chemical in tire crumb
used in these playing surfaces. In addition to the impact of those chemicals on children’s
hormones and development, as mentioned above, tests have shown that artificial turf and
playground materials can cause skin and eye irritation as well as asthma. The surface
temperature can rise above 140 degrees even when the temperature of the air and grass is
between 65 and 95 degrees. Recent testimony before the Maryland House Appropriations
Committee provided striking examples of children suffering serious burns and MRSA-infected
abrasions from artificial turf. In fact, players’ preferences and concerns about injuries helped
convince the Ravens to switch back from artificial turf to natural grass several years ago.
In summary, those who manufacture or install artificial turf, and scientists and others with
financial and personal connections to those industries, have made safety claims that are not
supported by any unbiased research. Even when they admit problems with tire crumb, they claim
that newer types of artificial turf are safer. Unfortunately, some of the materials used in the
newer types of artificial turf are not publicly disclosed, making safety claims meaningless and
safety research all but impossible.
The State of Maryland has many spending priorities and should not be spending millions of
dollars for artificial turf fields and playgrounds that can exacerbate our children’s health
problems now, and potentially cause them to develop cancer in the years to come. Let’s instead
invest in safe, natural playing fields, unless any synthetic alternatives are proven in unbiased
research to be as safe and as cost-effective as grass for fields and engineered wood fiber for
playgrounds.
Thank you for considering our views. We would be glad to supply additional information upon
request.
Sincerely,
Diana Zuckerman, PhD
President
National Center for Health Research