To the Editor:

Bethlehem Area School District is ready to spend $4.5-million on synthetic turf fields and track facilities. This is a waste of taxpayers’ money and creates serious health risks for students.

Proponents say heavy use makes it impossible to maintain the old grass fields, but comparing them to high-quality synthetic turf fields is silly. A professionally designed and installed grass field can take heavy use and costs only half as much! (And if both schools had high-quality grass fields, there would be no need for teams to practice at BASD stadium, which would actually reduce use of that field.)

The real issue is not money but students’ health. Synthetic fields and tracks are made from thousands of used tires that would otherwise be hazardous waste. Health professionals have called for a moratorium, and the EPA withdrew its approval and called for new, comprehensive studies of health risks.

Just like the tobacco companies 60 years ago, turf manufacturers assure us it’s safe - but so far, nearly 200 student athletes have developed lymphoma and other cancers after playing on synthetic turf.

Factors that existing studies fail to consider: (1) lymphoma and cancers take years or even decades to show up; (2) students absorb the fine particles by swallowing, breathing, and through the skin; (3) fields don’t expose students to one chemical at a time, but to a mixture of dozens of compounds - and regulations are so weak that over half of them have never been tested for health impacts.

In addition, synthetic fields cause about 50 percent more knee and ankle injuries and serious ‘turf burns’ that open the risk of antibiotic-resistant infections.

Proponents point to the need for ‘equity’ between the two high schools, and I agree. But equity should not be achieved by wasting over $2-million in taxpayer funds or risking students’ health.

Speak up before it’s too late.

For more information and sources, go to www.sustainlv.org/focus_on/synthetic-turf-overview.

Peter Crownfield

Fountain Hill

Crownfield coordinates the sustainability and health initiative for the Alliance for Sustainable Communities–Lehigh Valley.