Fields: Synthetic turf not worth the risks

“Are synthetic turf fields making young athletes sick?” (TNT, 8/14) and letter (TNT, 8/24).

As I read the article, and the comments from the Recycled Rubber Council, it made me think of other tactics by official agencies. All of us can recall the tobacco experts telling us how safe it was, or the auto industry telling us cars were safe without seat belts, and it gets better. The NFL telling us concussions were not relevant? I can go on and on.

Now we hear that the synthetic fields are safe. As a past president of Washington’s largest youth sports organization, I can tell you of plenty of stories of youth soccer players contracting cancer while on turf fields. Is there a connection? Where there is smoke, there is fire, as I have been told. Other materials are available that would provide a safer alternative. Instead, we find the least expensive fields being installed not for safety of our youth, but for convenience of cost.

It is time to err on the side of safety for our youth, for once.

This story was originally published August 29, 2016 at 12:09 PM with the headline "Fields: Synthetic turf not worth the risks."