Dear Commissioners:
I abhor what you have done to this town. If it isn't about subjecting us to seeing deer killed before our eyes and our children's eyes, and later when the game commission issues the permit to allow you to torture deer, it is forcing us to pay for the installation of toxic turf and expecting parents to make difficult choices concerning their children's participation in field sports.
Commissioners, you took us down the same path with both subjects by ignoring documentation that your constituents sent to you, shutting down public comment, humiliating those with opposing views, lying to our faces, and doing back room deals with the puppet masters who are pulling your strings.
I get much criticism from your anonymous minions of Gozer when Lebo Citizens readers disagree with them. Yet, you have no problem attacking residents during Citizen Comments after they give their names and addresses during public meetings. You're despicable.
Parents are worried that their children might want to sled ride after a snow fall between December 26 and January 24, 2015. Do they permit them to go to the parks or golf course? Building snowmen in their own yards could get dicey. What about golfers, if there is no snow? Will your municipal staff be calling "Fore" before shooting their arrows?
Today, I received two emails about turf which I will share here. I had sent an email to Coach Amy Griffin and would like to share her response.
From: Amy Griffin <xxxxxxxx@xxxxx>
To: egillen476 <egillen476@aol.com>
Sent: Fri, Dec 12, 2014 3:55 pm
Subject: Re: Artificial turf
Elaine,
After the NBC Crumb Rubber story, my INBOX grew quite a bit. I cannot remember if I returned your email, but since it is in my inbox, I am assuming I have not. Thank you so much for reaching out, sharing your struggle with being unable to stop the influx of more fields with that crap in it. :)
I saved your document and email and will let you know if and when something moves forward on this topic.
I hope your holidays are off to a great beginning.
Respectfully,
Amy Griffin
xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx
Twitter: GKCoachGriffin
FBook: UW Women’s Soccer
On Oct 16, 2014, at 7:08 PM, egillen476@aol.com wrote:
Dear Coach Griffin,
I want to thank you for sharing your story with NBC. I am a community blogger in Mt. Lebanon, a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA. I have been trying to stop our toxic turf project for several years. You may have seen lebocitizens.blogspot.com since I do get visitors from the University of Washington.
Today was a sad day for Mt. Lebanon. The Department of Environmental Protection granted a permit to begin our toxic turf project. I am attaching the letter from the DEP which includes a comment/response section. Please read Comment #14. It is heartbreaking.
I am just sick that our commissioners have rejected all our resources. I sent them the NBC investigation piece that you did with them. No response from the four commissioners pushing the project. They all have children who participate in field sports and are hoping for scholarships.
Here in Mt. Lebanon, we are ruled by the sports cabal. I hope other communities have better luck than we did.
Keep your message going, Coach. Thank you for your courage.
Elaine GillenEmail Number 2 [which was forwarded to me]:
From: Nancy Alderman Sent: Dec 11, 2014 2:31 PM To: undisclosed-recipients@null, null@null Subject: To the Media - Recommendations to parents and students who are in schools where there are synthetic turf fields.
Contact Information
Nancy Alderman, President
Environment and Human Health, Inc.
203-248-6582
December 11, 2014 - North Haven, Connecticut
Environment and Human Health, Inc., a group of 10 physicians and public health professionals, sends this advisory.
Because most synthetic turf fields contain ground up rubber tires that contain a myriad of toxic chemicals;
Because there have now been reported over 90 cancer cases among students who have played on synthetic turf fields;
Because most of the cancers reported are lymphomas.
Environment and Human Health, Inc. is recommending the following:
1. Children and students should be discouraged from playing on synthetic turf fields that contain ground-up rubber tire infill.
2. If children and students must play on these fields, they should shower immediately after leaving the field, as well as changing their clothing, including their socks and shoes. This is because the tiny rubber crumbs and the rubber crumb dust gets into socks, shoes, hair, ears etc. from the field's rubber tire infill.
3. 20% to 30%l of rubber tires are made up of carbon black, and carbon black is just one of the carcinogens in rubber tires.
4. Every synthetic turf field has 40,000 ground-up rubber tires in it. This is a lot of toxic material to expose our children and students to.
Environment and Human Health, Inc. (EHHI)
North Haven, CT 06473
(phone) 203-248-6582
http://www.ehhi.org
EHHI receives none of its funding from businesses or corporations. Below are the people who run EHHI.
Susan S. Addiss, MPH, MUrS. Past Commissioner of Health for the State of Connecticut; Past President of the American Public Health Association; Past member of the Pew Environmental Health Commission; Vice-Chair, Connecticut Health Foundation Board; Director of Health Education for Environment and Human Health, Inc.
Nancy O. Alderman, MES. President of Environment and Human Health, Inc.; Past member of the Governor's Pollution Prevention Task Force; Past member of the National Board of Environmental Defense; Recipient of the CT Bar Association, Environmental Law Section's, Clyde Fisher Award, given in recognition of significant contributions to the preservation of environmental quality through work in the fields of environmental law, environmental protection or environmental planning, and the New England Public Health Association's Robert C. Huestis/Eric Mood Award given to individuals for outstanding contributions to public health in the environmental health area.
Andrea Gottsegan Asnes, MD, MSW. Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine; Associate Director of the Yale Child Abuse Programs and Child Abuse Prevention Programs; Co-Director of the third year clerkship in Pediatrics, and an Associate Director of the MD/PhD Program.
D. Barry Boyd, MD. Clinical Professor of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, Oncologist at Greenwich Hospital and Affiliate Member of the Yale Cancer Center. Research areas include environmental risk factors for cancer as well as cancer etiology, including nutrition and the role of insulin and IGF in malignancy. Dr. Boyd is the Founder and Director of Integrative Medicine at Greenwich Hospital - Yale Health System. Russell L. Brenneman, Esq. Connecticut Environmental Lawyer; Co-Chair of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters; Chair of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters Education Fund; Former chair of the Connecticut Energy Advisory Board; Co-chair of the Connecticut Greenways Committee; Adjunct faculty in Public Policy at Trinity College, Hartford; Past President of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association.
David R. Brown, Sc.D. Public Health Toxicologist and Director of Public Health Toxicology for Environment and Human Health, Inc.; Past Chief of Environmental Epidemiology and Occupational Health at Connecticut's Department of Health; Past Deputy Director of The Public Health Practice Group of ATSDR at the National Centersfor Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia.
Thomas F. Harrison, Esq. Connecticut Environmental Lawyer; Past Assistant Attorney General in the New York State's Attorney General's office; Past Regional Counsel in the largest U.S. EPA Office, Region 5; Past Senior Corporate Council to the BFGoodrich Company; Past Partner at the Hartford law firm of Day Pittney LLP; Served on Connecticut's Board of Contracting Standards and Review; Served on the CT Council of Environmental Quality and was the Past Chairman of the Environmental Section of the CT Bar Association.
Pinar H. Kodaman, MD, PhD. Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Yale University School of Medicine; Director of the Early Recurrent Pregnancy Lost Program at the Yale Fertility Center.
Robert G. LaCamera, MD. Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine; Primary Care Pediatrician in New Haven, Connecticut from 1956 to 1996 with a sub-specialty in children with disabilities.
Hugh S. Taylor, M.D. Anita O'Keeffe Young Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University School of Medicine;Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
John P. Wargo, Ph.D. Tweedy Ordway Professor of Environmental Health and Politics, Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and Professor of Political Science. Author of Green Intelligence: Creating Environments That Protect Human Health published by Yale Press. The book won the Independent Publishers Award of Gold Medal in the field of "environment, ecology, and nature" for 2010. It also won the 2010 Connecticut Book Award in non-fiction. It was chosen as one of Scientific American's favorite books for 2009. Also author of Our Children's Toxic Legacy, which won the American Association Publisher's competition as best scholarly and professional book in an area of government and political science in 1997.
--
Nancy Alderman, President
Environment and Human Health, Inc.
1191 Ridge Road
North Haven, CT 06473
(phone) 203-248-6582
(Fax) 203-288-7571
http://www.ehhi.orghttp://ehhijournal.org
As families prepare for Hanukkah or Christmas, whatever happened to Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Men? You have turned Mt. Lebanon into a battle ground, all because of your personal agendas. You have no regard for facts or opinions other than those who agree with you or those who control you. Whether it is deer or turf, it is all the same.
13 comments:
I have no respect for a Commission that governs without the CONSENT of the people. The student newspaper, the Devil's Advocate, would not have lead stories about Pedestrian Injuries and Synthetic Turf if Mt Lebanon governed with the CONSENT of the people.
Across America, educators are struggling with how to teach the idea of "consent" to young adults and children.
Mt Lebanon Commission and Municipal Government is a story of what happens when people who have no respect for CONSENT but are full of narcissism and entitlement achieve a position of power.
Historically, people do remember effective leaders, as opposed to poor leaders. If I were an elected Commissioner, I would not want to be remembered as incompetent, unethical, immoral, or corrupt! People with a "tainted" reputation carry that with them the rest of their lives.
The commission majority, a couple of senior staff and a number of appointed officials are morally and ethically corrupt and guilty of repeated fraud (intentional deception in order to gain an unfair advantage).
I wonder if Comissioner Brumfield is going to stick with his position that he hasn't seen any negative concerns regarding artificial turf.
If he'd pay attention to his constituents as he is obligated to do, he couldn't miss Nancy Alderman's, President
Environment and Human Health, Inc., email to Elaine.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
The phrase "If I were an elected Commissioner" is one being uttered by an increasing number of the Mt. Lebo citizenry... including some who might have never considered it: because there is no choice.
The revolution is coming.
- Jason M.
7:38 AM, the email from EHHI was forwarded to me by a Lebo Citizens reader. EHHI did not email me directly. Sorry for the confusion.
Elaine
Sorry for being confused.
Nevertheless, the information is here on your blog and other evidence that turf may be hazardous to the kids and the environment has appeared in the national "reputable" media.
So the question remains, is Brumfield sticking to his guns?
No, it was my fault, 8:14 AM. I hope what I added clarifies things.
Elaine
"Environment and Human Health, Inc., a group of 10 physicians and public health professionals, sends this advisory.
Because most synthetic turf fields contain ground up rubber tires that contain a myriad of toxic chemicals;
Because there have now been reported over 90 cancer cases among students who have played on synthetic turf fields;
Because most of the cancers reported are lymphomas.
Environment and Human Health, Inc. is recommending the following:
1. Children and students should be discouraged from playing on synthetic turf fields that contain ground-up rubber tire infill."
So a group of 10 physcians and health professionals make the above recommendation that children and students should be discouraged from playing on artificial turf.
What do we have going on here. Four commissioners and a sports advisory board - with no medical credentials whatsoever - are not only ensuring our kids will play on artificial turf, they're already conspiring to add more of it.
Reminds me of the high school project. Architects and construction professionals advised against the board's renovation plans.
Despite the expert advice to step back the board ignored it and elected to proceed with their proposed "less than $100 million" plan.
When will we ever learn?
IMO, we need to elect bipartisan independent thinking people, who do not feel obligated to the old elitist power brokers pulling their strings for personal agendas in either party, and we need commissioners committed to cleaning house within the administration. Municipal manager is not a life time appointment, and neither is the Public Information Officer or Editor in Chief. Mt. Lebanon needs a complete house cleaning, with new blood and new thinking. How to get started? Commissioner Linfante is up for election next year. If people are fed up, they need to get involved and remove her from office. She has been the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the current Commission and Mt. Lebanon government. That will send a clear message to the other Commissioners - that change is coming. In addition, I would like to see a change in the Ward system in Mt. Lebanon. I think Commissioners should represent all residents, and that all residents should have a vote to elect or remove all elected officials.
10:02 the tools are already in place for accomplishing your goals. Unfortunately only about 1/3 of eligible voters ever use them.
As for changes in the system, the only ones you'll see forthcoming are like the next proposed change to the HR Charter that will eliminate the need for a super majority to pass items.
Elaine it's past time to create a YouTube'ish video that highlights this commission and how it is run. Sure got alot of materials don't we?
There's a new iPhone App/game called "Crossy Road" that all the Mt Lebanon kids are loving. It's a bit like "Frogger" from years past. The more time kids in Lebo spend recognizing cars as the hazards that they are, perhaps the less likely they are to end up a statistic.
I would like to suggest another new iPhone app/game for development created in honor of Mt Lebanon's newest hazard to child health: "Crossy Park: Open Season". Some of the hazards the child crossing the park might experience and need to circumvent include archers, falling tree stands, terrorized children sledding, injured animals, and the list goes on and on.
I am donating this idea to any entrepreneur from Mt Lebanon that is willing to get it started. Perhaps the game will need to be rated M for Mature audiences.
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