Popular athletic field turf raises worries in North Jersey
FEBRUARY 22, 2015, 9:50 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2015, 9:59 PM
BY JEFF ROBERTS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
The tiny specks of black rubber burrow their way into everything.
Keith Verkem finds them embedded in his carpet. In his car mats. Even chewed by his dog.
The shredded bits of used car and truck tires — called crumb rubber — routinely infest his Glen Rock home. They are carried in by his 13-year-old son, Zachary, after soccer games on artificial turf. They are used as infill on nearly all synthetic fields in the country.
And he wonders just how safe those little pellets are.
“My son comes home and takes off his cleats, and now I have piles of crumb rubber in my house,” Verkem said. “They do get everywhere.”
The large majority of studies have found minimal to no health risks from crumb rubber after testing turf fields, including analyses conducted by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the University of California at Berkeley.
Verkem better find his Testosterone pills.
His kid has take his shoes off in the garage or he doesn’t get dinner.
Next problem…..
don’t worry the sports groups have approved all of our turf fields and they are 100% safe.