A link between cancer and exposure to artificial turf is being examined after years of unease and suspicion about a possible correlation.
According to Forbes, in 2014 an NBC began to give more exposure to the potential link during a broadcast focusing on Amy Griffin, associate head coach for the University of Washington’s women’s soccer team.
That broadcast included interviews with Griffin, where she described what she dubbed “a stream of kids” playing soccer on artificial turf and soon after being diagnosed with cancer. Griffin has compiled a list of 38 American soccer players who have been diagnosed with cancer — 34 of them goalies.
Among these players, blood cancers like lymphoma and leukemia were most common.
A USA Today report in March of last year claimed that “lead levels high enough to potentially harm children have been found in artificial turf used at thousands of schools, playgrounds and day-care centers across the country, yet two federal agencies continue to promote the surfacing as safe.”
The issue began to become further complicated when NBC followed up their Amy Griffin broadcast with another that claimed the federal government has remained largely silent on the issue. Additionally, this new report claimed that the EPA failed to answer direct on-camera questions about the safety of artificial turf for children.
Following up the report, Congress gave the EPA a November 6th, 2015 deadline to look further into potential links between artificial turf and cancer. The EPA failed to meet this deadline.
Now, Reuters is reporting that three U.S. government agencies will be teaming up to study any link between turf and cancer. The Environmental Protection Agency, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be in charge of studying the issue.