I'm starting to think the game should be banned completely, for many different reasons; its use as a distraction; its undeniable connection and alliteration of militarism; the glorified and celebrated violence; and it use as an inculcating tool for the young; and now this environmental hazard (forget global pffffttting).
Now, I know I'm no fun but I'm for high-school and college sports. It's the outrageous expenditures and the mind-control money behind the professional games that bothers me the most. Sports is nothing more than a place for the wealthy to hide money.
Related: Friday Night Football Killed Teen Girl
For more on my feelings about sports and football, see my Sports labels.
"In fake grass, some see real threat; Tests reveal lead in school fields" by Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff | January 19, 2009
For two decades, state public health officials have waged a massive campaign to eliminate children's exposure to lead, yet some specialists are concerned that the toxic element may have found its way into schools in the form of artificial turf fields.
While industry officials maintain the fields are safe, the Globe recently commissioned tests of artificial grass at several city and suburban high schools in Massachusetts and found varying amounts of lead in the artificial surfaces.
The fake green grass rolled out in the fall at Concord-Carlisle High School's football field at a cost of $3.8 million tested positive for lead in the Globe's investigation, as did Boston's Saunders Stadium, Lincoln Sudbury High School, and Charlestown High School.
The football field at Concord-Carlisle High contained nearly 300 parts per million lead in the Globe-commissioned test. The US Environmental Protection Agency's standard for bare soil in children's play areas is a maximum of 400 parts per million, though the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has long recommended "the elimination of all nonessential uses of lead" because of the potential health hazards it poses....
*******************
With the increasing popularity of the fields in the professional and collegiate ranks, cities and towns across the state have been building artificial turf fields at a rapid clip, because they are durable and can accommodate nearly year-round athletic activity. But some communities are concerned about the possible health problems the fields pose.
Constructed of plastic and a simulated dirt made of discarded old tires (as many as 10,000 in a single field), some fields contain lead in levels higher than communities anticipated....
"There's no safe level of lead; let's be clear on that," said Don Mays, senior director of product safety at the Consumer's Union, publisher of Consumer Reports. The Consumer's Union and the CDC called for additional testing of artificial turf fields after lead levels at two older fields in New Jersey forced their closure in the summer.
"What we've seen is lead creeping back into products we assumed didn't have lead in them," Mays said, "like vinyl products and playing fields."
Problems with lead surfaced last year, when public health workers measuring run-off at a landfill in New Jersey found high lead concentrations in two playing fields nearby. Local officials closed both out of fear that athletes were swallowing or inhaling lead dust emanating from worn plastic grass....
********************
Excessive lead exposure has been linked to severe mental retardation, stunted growth, and death. Suzanne Condon, Massachusetts associate commissioner for public health, said it's up to local officials to know what's in artificial turf before they buy it. The state has no plans to test fields.
"If you're a parent and you have concerns, you can ask [local officials] what the artificial turf is made of," Condon said.
Yeah, the STATE FOBS that off to YOU, citizen!! FUCK YOUR KIDS!!!
They only want your TAX MONEY so they can give "millions of dollars away supporting a highly profitable industry" when it comes to $300 million in taxpayer dollars for Hollywood, or a BILLION DOLLAR GIVEAWAY to the pharmaceutical corporations was a GOOD THING, even though "it's never been easy to turn a profit in biotech?"
Flush that money away, too, taxpayer -- straight to ISRAEL (if you can believe it) w, which explaisn why we never see that money again and why we get tax increases and service cuts.
For more, see: Patrick Given Budget Cleaver
Consultant John Amato of Westford, a member of the Synthetic Turf Council, an industry group, dismissed concerns about lead in an interview. Synthetic turf is an off-shoot of the carpet industry, and carpeting often contains low levels of lead that cause no public health threat. So do other plastics, such as twisting telephone cords. Any lead found in artificial turf grass is inert and encapsulated in plastic, he said.
Yeah, even though NO LEAD is safe, huh?
"It's not a health risk for children," Amato said of the fields. "These things get blown out of proportion."
Besides, the DEPLETED URANIUM DUST they'll be sucking up after the draft will be worse for them!
Related: Faltering economy bolsters recruiting for armed forces
--more--"
