Recently, Dominion High School has been making a strong push to install an artificial turf field despite claims that crumb rubber artificial turf is a cancer causing substance. Loudoun County is standing firm that they these fields are completely safe for athletes to compete on, and they will continue to build them.

Crumb rubber (ground up rubber tires) is the filling for almost all artificial turf fields. For years it was never an issue, until recently when Amy Griffin, a University of Washington women’s soccer goalkeeper coach, found a connection between athletes who played on crumb rubber turf fields and cancer.

In 2015, Griffin found 200 athletes who played sports on crumb rubber who had some form of cancer. 158 of them were soccer players and 101 of those soccer players were goalkeepers. This correlation between soccer goalies, who spend more time diving into the turf than anyone else, and cancer has raised some eyebrows across the country.

Last year an E:60 documentary was created by ESPN on the matter, it was rightfully called Turf Wars. The film asked why this information was being pushed aside and artificial turf fields were continuing to be installed while many still question the data gaps that lie in current research.

In Turf Wars, Dr. David Brown, a well-known public health toxicologist, said that the most shocking part of Griffin’s study was that more of these athletes had Lymphoma rather than Leukemia, which is usually the most prevalent cancer among younger adults. Brown said that the only way that this should be possible is if there was some sort of chemical that caused it.

Brown conducted a study in later in 2015 to find out the different chemicals contained in crumb rubber and 12 known carcinogens, or cancer causing substances, were discovered. In addition, they found that only half of the 96 chemicals within the pellets have been tested by any government organizations.

Griffin’s findings seem to disagree with the available data on the subject which has not found any hard evidence that the crumb rubber is cancer causing. However, the problem with the existing research is that there is no research on long term exposure and numerous data gaps.

Reliable research may finally be on the way, as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced that they are launching a full-scale investigation to uncover data that can give some definitive answers on the subject.

On the other hand, Loudoun County Public Schools seem to be much more confident in current findings. So confident, that they plan to have at least one turf field in every Loudoun County High School by the fiscal year 2022.

In a press release last year, Loudon County acknowledged the rumors regarding the safety of turf field and stated, “In the absence of further scientific evidence, LCPS will continue to rely on these sources when installing and maintaining its synthetic turf fields.”

Dominion is one of the schools that is scheduled to receive a crumb rubber artificial turf field in fiscal year 2022. This plan has struck dissatisfaction in the Dominion High School Athletics program.

Dominion has made a recent push, asking that the field be installed in 2017. Assistant Athletic Director Anne Gasser said,  “From the coach’s perspective and the team’s perspective, I think it is more of equity because we feel like we are losing out on days where we can practice outdoors because of the weather. “ She also added, “Once you get a turf field you can rent that out to outside facilities, so it becomes a source of income.”

Regarding the safety of the crumb rubber in the field, Gasser said, “From what I hear from the majority of people that represent Dominion that that’s not a big concern to them. There are people that it does concern and they might be here at Dominion but I have not heard that.”

When asked whether new information proving that crumb rubber is cancer casing would change Dominion’s stance on wanting a turf field, Dr. John Brewer stated, “What I would never advocate for is that we would knowingly put a surface on our athletic fields that would be dangerous or harmful to our athletes.”

If conclusive studies prove that crumb rubber is a harmful substance, Brewer insisted that Dominion would instead pursue an organic artificial turf field without crumb rubber. This filling is expected to cost anywhere from 20-40% more expensive than crumb rubber filling according to Kenneth Wright, LCPS Supervisor of Athletics.

If there was some definitive research that forced Loudoun County to change its policy, they would lose millions of dollars in replacing every turf field that they had had built or replacing the crumb rubber with organic filling. This would also open the door to potential lawsuits from athletes who have competed on the fields.

However, all of this is premature until the end of 2016 when the EPA, CPSC, and the CDC plan to release their findings on the safety of crumb rubber artificial turf. For the sake of the counties budget and the health of student athletes, it is safe to say that LCPS will be crossing their fingers hoping that the results come back negative.