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.