Turf Fields: Playing with Kids' Health

Lead is an incredibly pervasive and widespread poison, and there is no known safe level. According to estimates made by Dr. Philip Landrigan, a leading expert at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, we all lost an average of five IQ points if we grew up in postwar America before lead was removed from gasoline. That’s a huge number. And because IQ follows a normal distribution curve, if you look at the very bright cohort above 130 or the challenged cohort below 70, they are decreased and increased by about 50 percent, respectively. This is such a huge effect it could well account for any loss of American competitiveness in the last 50 years. And the rise in special education needs. Or, if you are on the bright side of the curve, it could account for your failure to win that Nobel prize.

This is not a possible, or a future, or a potential effect. It is measurable right here and now. And the effects are permanent. Once poisoned, always dumber. No wonder the federal regulators make such a big deal of it.

And there is lead in most artificial turf athletic fields. It’s been confirmed by private citizens and The Boston Globe in Sudbury and Wayland, along with a number of other towns. Read full story by Tom Sciacca and Guive Mirfendereski, Click here.