Today, Public Advocate Gotbaum, along with Council Member Eric Gioia and New Yorkers for Parks, called on the city parks department to create a replacement schedule for artificial turf fields in New York City. The event comes on the heels of a recently leaked memo pointing to research that suggests potential health hazards related to crumb-rubber infill made from
recycled tires.
Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, a former Parks Department Commissioner, said:
"For over two years, I raised concerns about the potential health and environmental hazards of using recycled rubber tires at playgrounds. And while the Parks Department did finally agree to stop installing turf using tire scrap, they have not created a schedule to replace all the fields and playgrounds that still exist. If they were concerned enough to announce they would no longer use artificial turf made from recycled tires, they should be equally concerned about the safety of the fields made from this material that are already in use. Creating a replacement schedule will be essential if it is found that deteriorating turf poses a health risk and useful in properly assessing the long-term costs of using artificial turf."
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