PUBLICSOURCE/WESA - Environmental toxicologist Dr. Bernard Goldstein of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health weighs in on the safety of artificial turf fields.
“Sometimes there is a real relationship, and it shows up first as a cluster. Unless you do the epidemiological studies, we just don’t know,” Goldstein said, adding that such clusters can occur in nature without a common cause."It’s far too early to assume any connection between crumb rubber and lymphoma," he said. As a hematologist who has studied lymphoma, Goldstein said he doesn’t know of any compounds being released by crumb rubber that are known to cause the cancer...
In the meantime, athletes don’t have to recuse themselves from the turf, said Goldstein, former dean of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. “But it is wise to take off athletic gear and shower right away,” he said. “There are certain kinds of preventive approaches which come at no cost. That’s one of them. Wipe off, go ahead.”
10/11/2016