Monday, August 24, 2009

San Francisco Supervisor moves to stop conversion of parks to synthetic

Effort to stop artificial turf growth
By: Joshua Sabatini08/19/09 9:00 AM PDT
Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi introduced a resolution requesting that the Recreation and Park Department forget about converting playing fields from natural turf to artificial surfaces.
Mirkarimi said the department plans to install the turf at Kimball Park “soon,” and wants to ensure that doesn’t happen there or anywhere for a while, if at all.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions about the conversion of the normal park ground to the artificial turf and the synthetic turf,” Mirkarimi said Tuesday.
He said he wants more community process, and also the resolution states no artificial turfs should be installed until the release “of a report by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment on the health and environmental impacts of synthetic turf fields.” That report is due out September 2010.
The resolution was co-sponsored by Supervisor John Avalos.
The resolution says: “There are several scientific studies pointing out toxic substances including heavy metals and volatile airborne corrosives associated with these synthetic turfs, the ingestion of only ten grams of which is considered seriously, irrevocably carcinogenic.” http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/under-the-dome/Effort-to-stop-artificial-turf-growth-53633907.html