www.plasticfieldsforNever.org

Parks and Playfields are for People and Plants. Sign the Natural Turf Playfields Initiative Petition Now.

At recent hearings on Bainbridge Island many voters spoke against the use of plastic & toxic used tire in athletic fields. We ask, on a playfield for kids, why take the risk? Lawyers for the plastic turf industry turned out, too. They handed us a letter, saying shut this website down or they will sue us. Come on, lawyers at Seattle's Summit Law Firm, representing a synthtic turf manufacturer, tell us, does your client have something to hide?

Voters and parents want to fix our playfields now. We support the cheaper, safer natural alternative---real grass turf for our parks and playfields. Now, that's why we're signing the Natural Turf Playfields Initiative Petition. This Initiative will fix all of the playfields on Bainbridge Island, with natural grass turf--real turf, for real athletes. Safe for kids, safe for the environment. Get yours to sign at info@plasticfieldsfornever.org.

Enough asphalt and concrete have been spread around the world to make highways to everywhere, the surfaces of which absorb the sun's heat and help cause the earth's atmosphere to warm inordinately. Now our parks and playfields are being paved with plastic and recycled tires. At a time when the world needs desperately to reverse global warming, what to us seems like a no-brainer is a battle being fought in community after community by activists around the world who want simply to preserve some natural green, and the earth itself. The goal of our organization and this website is to help publicize the research and give you the tools to help you do just that. A plastic and recycled tire playing field holds some 120 tons of granulated waste tire. A grass field holds a couple billion blades of living, breathing grass. We're here to help the grass, and the people, stay alive.
To make artificial turf, recycled tire is spread like beach sand across a field of plastic filament. Like sand, bits of tire and plastic flow with water off the field, and are tracked home on shoes and clothing. This material is toxic. The illustration to your right is plastic and recycled tired removed from a kid's soccer shoe after a game played in Seattle.
On January 17, the Bainbridge Island School Board voted to install 6,000 square yards of this at Bainbridge High School. You can stop them. Sign the Natural Turf Playfields Initiative. Tell them you want the cheaper, better natural turf alternative. Get your copy at: info@plasticfieldsfornever.org
Plastic and recycled tire playing fields:

~cost up to three times as much as natural grass;
~contain about 120 tons of chopped tires that emit “toxic, cancer causing, mutation triggering chemicals and metals” (New Haven Register, 11/10/2007);
~expose kids to heavy metals & fiberglass;
~release plastic and recycled tire into storm water;
~on a 75°F day, surface temperatures can reach 120°F, causing foot burns, and kids to overheate and dehydrate;
~at warmer termperatures release hydrocarbons from recycled tires into air that exercising kids breathe;
~when irrigated to cool, become a steambath of aromated hydrocarbons;
~for areas such as Puget Sound, runoff places School Districts and Cities in violation of the federal Clean Water Act since most do not or cannot treat chemically contaminated stormwater;
~runoff held on-site may contaminate water table;
~represent an easily avoidable contribution to global warming, and violate policies for sustainable, eco-friendly construction;
~result in injuries to kids including burns from plastic/recycled tire surfaces when sliding on bare skin, and ligament and muscle injuries;
~higher incidence of abrasions and burns correlate with increased transfer of deadly MRSA;
~banned from use by European professional soccer;
~an Italian government commission has recommended the removal of 200 artificial turf fields from Italy;
~under investigation by the Attorney General of the State of Connecticut;
~subject to moratorium on installation in New York State under consideration by NY State Assembly.

Click to view up close the migration of plastic and rubber tire field infill from playfields to nearby Seattle storm drains.
Help us buy media to alert parents and voters. Support our work to protect our kids & the environment. Every donation helps. Only you can stop the disinformation campaign of the synthetic turf industry. Don't let our schools become tire dumps! (And it looks like we're going to need a lawyer, too.)
Contribute to Our Action Campaign

Stop the paving of parks and fields with used tires & plastic grass!

Protect our kids. Save tax dollars. Help stop global warming.

Links to Issues Research
The Artificial Turf Report: The Latest Independent Research on Synthetic Turf from ehhi.org: Nationally Prominent Scientists and Medical Professionals Call for Moratorium on Artificial Turf

"These studies conclusively demonstrate that the tire crumbs and the tire mulch release chemical compounds into the air and ground water. Thus, tire crumbs constitute a chemical exposure for humans and for the environment."
News Articles/Changing Perceptions

Athletes and kids have long preferred natural grass. New research on the toxins in used tire infill in fake turf prove that natural is best. And voters are responding accordingly by saying no more plastic grass!
Many questions remain unanswered regarding whether or not there are potential health or ecological hazards that can result from installations of synthetic playing fields.  Due to the  unresolved public health and environmental issues, it is prudent public health policy to avoid installation of new synthetic turf fields until the health and environmental issues can be fully evaluated.  A bill was introduced on October 23rd 2007 to the New York State Assembly calling for a moratorium on new synthetic turf installations pending a careful review of information regarding potential human health implications and an evaluation of potential impacts.

Environmental Health & Research Center, State University of New York at Albany, October, 2007

At Seattle's Loyal Heights Elementary School, the "Field Turf" synthetic turf field feeds rubber infill through storm drains to Puget Sound. What goes round comes round...
"No one wants children to be 'told they cannot play', but isn’t that better than telling a young adult they have cancer?” asked Stacey Mesler, who has requested soccer officials to “proceed with caution” rather than rush to returf the field with a synthetic surface.

Ridgefield Press: ONALFO FIELD: Hearing set on artificial turf 12/06/2007 Ridgefield, CT

Why take the risk, when natural turf alternatives are readily available at one third the cost of artificial turf? The notion that there is additional annual operating cost is absurd. We want and support athletic programs, and part of the program cost is maintaining safe fields. Fields that help, not hurt, kids. Trying to cut corners now will cost us the future. Literally.

Chris Van Dyk, Founder, plasticfieldsforNever.org

information:

info@plasticfieldsforNever.org

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