To the Editor:

Last week, Bethlehem Area School District once again committed itself to synthetic turf sports fields, despite the potential long-term health risks for students who use them. I don’t think anybody was surprised by that decision - but it was disappointing, because the school board placed expedience and budgetary concerns over the safety and health of students.

Parents and students at Freedom High School are absolutely right to call for better facilities, because the existing fields at Freedom are in deplorable condition. This is not due to any inherent deficiency in natural turf as a playing surface, it’s because the district doesn’t take care of them. Professionally designed grass fields are far less expensive and preferred by the majority of professional and college-level athletes.

Correcting the poor fields at Freedom certainly does not justify putting even more students at risk - after playing on synthetic turf, over 200 young athletes have developed forms of cancer that are very unusual in that age group.

Just a week before the vote, the Centers for Disease Control and the Consumer Product Safety Commission joined with the Environmental Protection Agency to say that more-comprehensive studies are needed. The Connecticut Department of Health, long a defender of synthetic turf safety claims, said new concerns “raise important questions about the safety of these fields and suggest more comprehensive study is warranted.”

I am sure the seven board members who voted for synthetic turf think it is probably safe. But a decision that risks harming thousands of students shouldn’t rely on personal opinion and ignore the serious health concerns raised by scientists, physicians, and environmental health experts.

Having synthetic turf (or track surfaces) at any school in the district is irresponsible and shows a failure of the district to act to protect the students.

Peter Crownfield

Fountain Hill, Pa.