3 yards and a cloud of what?

When Norfolk takes on Millard West Friday in the Nebraska Class A football playoffs, the focus from the stands will be on the field — the players, the plays and who survives to play again.

What parents, students and fans probably won't be thinking about is what's in the field. In the latest generation of artificial turf are thousands of tiny rubber crumbs made from pulverized tires that provide the cushion.

Those crumbs stick to sweaty players, bounce along the tracks that encircle the fields and get lodged in football and soccer cleats, P.E. sneakers and band Dinkles.

But what if the crumbs end up in a player's mouth or lungs? At least 100 different chemicals and heavy metals like lead are found in tire crumbs. And rubber tires, in their original form, are such an environmental bane that many states, including Nebraska and Iowa, ban them from landfills.

So are there long-term health risks from playing on these fields?

It's too early to really know because the installations are so recent and have had such limited study.

The Environmental Protection Agency started looking into the issue more than a year ago, and some consumer groups have complained recently that the federal government is taking too long to weigh in.

As the fields have become more common — one trade group estimates some 5,300 have been installed nationally — some communities, including Chicago and New York City, have debated the safety of this new generation of synthetic turf. The State of Connecticut is studying potential health and environmental risks. At least one New York school district rejected a plan for such a field because of health concerns.

But ask Midlands athletic directors about the fields, and they'll tell you they better cushion the blows that come with football, require less maintenance and allow more days of use.

And with Nebraskans alone dumping some 1.7 million tires a year, the fields, tracks and playgrounds give rubber tires a place to go. The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality encourages this kind of use by awarding grants to help fund tire crumb fields — 28 at Nebraska colleges and schools so far, with 20 of those in the past three years. At least 20 Iowa colleges and schools have tire crumbs fields.

Recent studies conducted by the State of New York, New York City and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission suggest negligible health risk from either the tire crumbs or the fibers in the synthetic grass.

“The questions have been asked and answered over and over again,” said Rick Doyle, president of Synthetic Turf Council, a trade association.

But the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment said the studies have gaps. No study, for example, has measured the metals content of the particulates released, or whether use increases particulate release. Variables of field age and temperature also haven't been taken into account.

“If safeguarding children's health is a top priority at EPA, why can't this multibillion-dollar agency afford to take a hard look at what is in our playgrounds, schoolyards and athletic fields?” said Jeff Ruch, director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a national alliance of scientists, law-enforcement officers, land managers and others focused on the environment.

A national spotlight first shone on the popular synthetic surfaces in April 2008, when New Jersey health officials announced that high levels of lead dust were discovered in artificial grass fibers on aging fields in Newark and Hoboken.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission quickly launched a limited study to see if the fibers posed a health threat. In July, the commission said there wasn't any.

That left the EPA to assess the tire crumbs used as cushioning for the turf. About 25,000 tires go into an average football field.

Last fall, the agency did a limited test at three fields with tire crumbs to see if a full study was warranted, spokesman Dale Kemery said. The raw data — collected at nose level of children, about 3 feet above the fields — so far show minimal risk, he said, but the results are still being analyzed.

Suzanne Wuerthele, a retired toxicologist who worked in the EPA regional office in Denver for 23 years, said the EPA could move faster. She alerted the agency to tire-crumb concerns about two years ago.

In January 2008, the Denver regional office warned EPA headquarters that pulverized recycled tires may contain arsenic, cadmium, chromium, manganese, mercury, lead, benzene, latex and other compounds. Some are carcinogenic, and some can cause brain dysfunction.

Stephen Tuber, assistant EPA regional administrator in the agency's Denver office, recommended that the EPA pull its endorsement of fields and playgrounds with tire crumbs until answers are found.

The EPA so far has taken the stand that recycling tires is a good way to keep them from landfills, where they can catch fire, pop through linings or become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

“It's an ongoing problem,” said Steve Danahy, supervisor of the waste planning and aid unit at the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality.

Athletic directors and officials at the Omaha Public Schools, Westside Community Schools, Millard Public Schools and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln said they've heard no complaints from parents, players or anyone else about the tire-crumb fill of their turf fields.

OPS officials were attuned to the concerns that chemicals from ground-up tires could be hazardous. But after their own examination of existing studies turned up nothing conclusive, they used tire crumbs in their new fields.

“Nothing's been proven, but we're continuing to watch for the results of the current research,” said Shelley Bengtson, environmental specialist for the district.

Jeremy Madson, OPS construction manager, said everything he heard from consultants and contractors indicated that “you'd have to eat half the field worth of rubber to get to any dangerous levels.”

Central High got the district's first updated synthetic turf field. Benson, Burke, South and Northwest now have them, and Bryan is getting one.

Westside Athletic Director Bob Reznicek recalled the sheer amount of tire crumbs that went into Westside High's field when it was installed in 2004. Semi-trailer trucks delivered 120 tons that formed a small rubber mountain “higher than the storage garage and scoreboard.”

Westside fluffs up its field about once a week and lays down more tire crumbs two to three times a month to compensate for the crumbs lost or compacted into the turf.

The fields have a life span of eight to 12 years. It currently costs at least $280,000 to replace just the turf and infill, according to OPS. That wouldn't include any existing facility removal, construction around the field or changes to the drainage system under it.

Westside spent about $2 million to put its track and field in a new location. Reznicek figures it would cost about $500,000 to replace the turf field.

Reznicek said there's no comparison when it comes to the amount of use a synthetic turf field can take as compared to grass, especially in a rainy month.

Westside's field, like the others, gets plenty of use: football, soccer, marching band, community groups and gym classes.

Fickle Nebraska weather was a big reason UNL's John Ingram said he prefers the Huskers' turf.

UNL, which was the first university to lay FieldTurf 10 years ago, is now on its second such field (the original replaced outdated, rug-burn-prone AstroTurf in 1999; the current field was installed in 2006).

“Just think of Memorial Stadium with grass,” said Ingram, associate athletic director for capital planning and construction. “You think I'd sleep on a Friday night if there was snow and rain?”

Beyond that, he said, athletes suffer fewer scrapes and knee ligament injuries on the new, softer synthetic field than on the old one.

Norfolk, one of a minority of Class A teams still playing on grass, proved it didn't need the latest in field turf. Playing at home last week, Norfolk crushed Omaha Central 28-0 to advance to Friday's playoff game.

“We're OK with playing on grass,” said Dennis Dolliver, Norfolk athletic director. “It's just tough when it rains. ... When the field is in such poor shape, you slip and slide all over; that's not a good thing.”

If Dolliver had his druthers, Norfolk would have the new synthetic turf, tire crumbs and all.

“Not even a question,” he said.

This report includes material from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Contact the writer:

444-1136, erin.grace@owh.com

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