Sunday, July 13, 2014

While we're waiting for the project to start


While we are waiting for the toxic turf trucks to roll in, I wanted to tell everyone about a new group in Toronto called No Toxic Turf.
We want tire waste synthetic turf to be banned in Toronto, as it is being banned (and replaced with natural grass) increasingly in cities and countries around the world. 
To quote Patti Wood, Executive Director of nonprofit Grassroots a Environmental Education: 
“This crumb rubber is a material that cannot be legally disposed of in landfills or ocean-dumped because of its toxicity. Why on earth should we let our children play on it?”
At the very least, we want the TDSB to honour its mandate to protect the health and welfare of its students by declaring a moratorium on the replacement of its natural grass fields with artificial turf – until it can prove that it is safe. 
The health of our students, our communities, and our environment depends on the protection of our precious, dwindling, green spaces.

Their Research & Articles include some of the same links that we shared with our commissioners. I do not see Brumfield's obscure study from the Netherlands. Some day, I would love to locate that study. I did find data from the Norwegian Institute for Water Research here. In the link, the question was raised as to what cleaning products will be used to maintain the artificial turf, just as I had questioned during Citizen Comments.

Maintenance of artificial turf can include application of algaecides or disinfectants to keep the surface clean. [31] Maintenance could also include application of fabric softener to mask the odor of the artificial turf. [32] What is the final destination of these chemicals and their implications for the environment and those coming into contact with them while playing on the fields? 

No Toxic Turf includes a link to Safe, Healthy Playing Fields Coalition. Check out the entry dated February 18, 2014. Boy, did that hit home.

Read the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's refusal to classify artificial turf as a children’s product.

The Mt. Lebanon Commissioners should bear the burden of proof. 
"When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically. In this context the proponent of an activity, rather than the public, should bear the burden of proof. The process of applying the precautionary principle must be open, informed and democratic and must include potentially affected parties. It must also involve an examination of the full range of alternatives, including no action."

​- Wingspread Statement on the Precautionary Principle, January 1998.

What if it turns out that we are right, Commissioners? Think about what you are doing to our kids, our water, and our air.

34 comments:

  1. In celebration of our PRO Turf Senator, a new coalition shall be instituted in Mount Lebanon.....
    Mothers Against Toxic Turf So Many Illnesses are Thwarted or Halted ( M.A.T.T.S.M.I.T.H. )
    ---wink-wink----


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  2. Where can I join?? Thank you for pointing out just who is behind this debacle besides the Mt. Lebanon sports cabal. Certainly, Matt Smith cares more about his voting block than the health and safety of his constituents. Where is Dan Miller on this issue? After all, he is a resident and has other valid health related concerns for the youth of our community. Didn't he organize a consortium for special needs families? The metals, specifically lead content of the turf, have a relationship with autism. Where is Dan?

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  3. Are you kidding? They're in Harrisburg working to get MORE funding for k-12 education.
    One can never have enough $74,000 trophy cases and $80,000+ Capital Campaign Chairpersons. (must be gender neutral don't you know!)

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  4. Miller won't touch it because it's a "local issue", even though it has the potential to harm the health of our kids, flood homes, and pollute the water. (e.g. Too many votes at stake from the sports lobby - wink-wink).

    VOTE for George Brown!

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  5. The election is months off... support George Brown!
    Then vote for him.

    Upset with an ineffectual Congress, indecisive state legislature and deft commission?
    Want to see change in local, state and federal government? That would be the biggest message you could send at all levels with your individual vote.

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  6. Correction-
    Deaf, not deft!

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  7. 3:50, I think you meant "daft."

    --Tom the Tinker

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  8. What does the zoning hearing board say about these toxic crumb rubber fields? Why has the muni cancelled that meeting on July 24 saying no one has filed an appeal when there are still 2 weeks to file one?

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  9. The 4 commissioners, Feller, Deiseroth, Donnellan, all SAB & TPTF members and J.T.Sauer particularly are as culpable as can be when the health claims and lawsuits are filed. Everyone save all your files on the debacle. The D&O liability insurance the covers commission, staff and certain board members will not cover them if their negligence can be proven. And they are and have been very negligent haven't they !

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  10. Those toxic turf trucks better not roll through my kid's school zone in Sept and Oct. No thru trucks, Gateway. Their traffic engineer should know...

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  11. I'm keeping my sign up and I hope others will, too.

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  12. Thank you, 12:10 PM. I have my signs up. Baseball legend Yogi Berra once said, "It ain't over 'til it's over."
    Elaine

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  13. Want to have a bigger impact?

    Rather than putting or keeping a sign up, if you're a parent against turf and with a kid in youth sports... delay signing up for a sport until the drop dead deadline to do so.
    You'll scare the hell out of the sports cabal!

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  14. 12:30 I did one better. I called my sons coach and told him that next year my sons would be playing ball in another league. We heard that Cool Springs will have teams and we have talked to several coaches while at tournament play. They can accept so many players from outside their borders. I played on turf at college and I realize that baseball will NEVER see playing time on the "New lacrosse" field I refuse to support this crap in any form. My sons' health is more important than Brumfield's kid getting a college free-ride. He, like the rest of us can EARN IT!

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  15. 2:24 PM, I am always telling my kids to support small businesses. I can't even pass up a lemonade stand. This is no different.

    Parents do have options. Unfortunately, neighbors of the fields do not.
    Elaine

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  16. Brumfield doesn't believe parents say no to their kids.
    I guess he is in for a surprise, 2:24 PM.
    Elaine

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  17. I had to say one thing that almost knocked me over this weekend. I got out of church and saw someone pulling weeds off the curb at the library. I asked the woman what are you doing and she said we have this garden sale and many people are going to be seeing the weeds so I am pulling them. She looked up at me and OMG it was Kelley Fraasch. Her car was full with plants from the sale and someone said when she pulled up to get her plants and saw the weeds she started pulling. She ended up with two people helping her. Another volunteer got her a bag and she bagged them up. It was a lot of weeds and was embarassing to see the state of the sidewalk area. A lot of people were talking about it at the sale. We go after politicians often on this blog but Kelley shows another side of politics.

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  18. We have already had the "talk" with our son. I am not referring to the sex talk either. We are going to find other activities to join this year. he was rather indifferent about it. no whining.

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  19. 5:19 PM, that doesn't surprise me. Kelly was picking up bricks on Castle Shannon Blvd. after the July 2013 flooding. It happened to be Dave Brumfield's ward.
    She was weeding the Veteran's Memorial too.
    Elaine

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  20. I was wondering where to post this observation but now that I have seen the most recent entries I think I have found the right place: I saw a child prepping the Lincoln baseball field this evening. He was pouring a white substance into the pitcher's mound area. It looked like the lime used to mark boundaries, etc.

    Is this what we will see happening with the turf maintenance? Are kids going to distribute the crumb rubber refill between games?

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  21. 6:55, that is a new initiative from the "This Is Bullshit" public works department.
    The only field that counts is Middle/Wildcat. The maintenance for all the others will be rely on the kids that use them.

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  22. 9:22 PM, we're talking about a school district field, not a municipal field.

    Should children be prepping any field?
    Elaine

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  23. Yes I know it is a school district field, but as you say should the kids have to prep any field, especially considering what we pay in muni and SD taxes.

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  24. The fields are routinely limed prior to game starts by parents or coaches. There is no provision for the SD or Muni to perform these tasks, as they typically happen 2-4 times per day when the fields are in use.

    Also, parents & coaches routinely prepare the fields for play by dragging the infields or raking them after rainfall.

    It is unreasonable to believe that the Muni or SD should be responsible for mundane tasks as these.

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  25. Absolutely, Chuck! It has always been up to the coaches/parents.

    I thought I would share this article from Pittsburgh Business Times about Cool Springs.

    Cool Springs Sports Complex opens with big plans to come in the South Hills
    Elaine

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  26. Of course we'll have to see how his project "plays out" - pardon the pun - but I wish Brian Shanahan and Cool Springs all the best. Once again we see that free markets can supply if the demand is demonstrated. In such cases the business, the consumer, and the local government are all winners.

    Compare the Cool Springs model to the collectivist approach practiced in Mt. Lebanon, where a relatively small number of connected "sports cronies" receive largesse courtesy of the taxpayer - their own contributions, being admirable, notwithstanding.

    I haven't played golf in years, but I may go out to Cool Springs and hit a bucket of balls; it's my choice to do so, and it won't cost you, dear fellow resident, a dime.

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  27. from South Hills Almanac...'... Commission president Kristen Linfante went even further, offering project critics something of a civics lesson. “The democratic process is not putting everything that comes across our desks to a referendum,” she said. “We base our decisions off a lot of hard work. Not everyone here has all the information that we do.” '...Does this mean the population is unable to comprehend the information within the purview of the commission? Therefore the information cannot face the light of day for review by the residents. Hmm... how illogical is the logic

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  28. 7:34 this the woman that ran on a platform of open government, transparency AND protested a Town Hall whose agenda was simply to increase communication and sharing of ideas!
    All hail, Queen Linfante.

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  29. Linfante strikes again. "Not everyone here has all the information that we do". Why is that? Why don't we have the same information? You and the overweight lover Heavy D Brumfield keep telling us that you're transparent and doing things right. Guess not. We have public meetings for a reason. There are rules in place to keep you from making your secret backroom deals. So now you've admitted you and the commission have held back on information. That's just great.

    Way to go Lebo. Once again other communities are laughing and shaking their heads, thankful they don't live here.

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  30. Mt Lebanon DEMOCRATS "suck"! Isn't that correct Brumfield?

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  31. http://triblive.com/mobile/6445365-96/sports-complex-athletes

    "The second phase, a 172,000-square-foot indoor sports complex scheduled to be finished in spring 2015, will include orthopedic services from Allegheny Health Network, three basketball courts, six volleyball courts, a gym and a FIFA regulation-size soccer field that can be used for lacrosse, football and baseball. There will be a separate, enclosed dek hockey structure, Shanahan said."

    Our commissioners need to get out of the sports business and take care of the things they need to take care of, like infrastructure, roads, sewers, crosswalks, trails etc.

    If the demand is there, private money will always step up if there is money to be made!

    It is the municipality's job to attract private money, not build it for them.

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  32. Democrats think nothing of "SUCKING" every dollar they can out of peoples' wallets.

    Look at the school board, they'll raise salaries and expenditures to lofty new heights while out of the other side of their mouths whine that Harrisburg isn't pumping enough money into education all the while MTLSD enrollments are dropping.

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  33. Those who offer their houses for sale should stop paying taxes until the house sale is completed.Just think of the taxes one would save.

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  34. 12:15 enrollment may soon surge. Remember the School Board changed policies to accept foreign students. Now it looks like Mt Lebanon will be home to these illegals flooding across our border. Hey at $20,000 per student why not? We have all the money in the world....

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