Next week officials of the Upper Perkiomen School District will decide whether or not install artificial turf on one or two athletic fields at the high school.

Before they do, Harry Quinque, president of the Upper Perkiomen School Board, is encouraging interested citizens to attend a public meeting of the District’s Facilities Committee on Monday, November 9 at 7 p.m. in the education center.  The center is located on Buck Road in Upper Hanover Township.

The committee will be able to hear the concerns or praises of artificial turf from the public as well as each other.  Also on hand for Monday night’s meeting will be experts, available to answer questions or offer opinions on the issue.  Quinque is encouraging the public to attend Monday night’s meeting and offer comments or ask questions.

We don’t offer strong opinions for or against artificial turf.  We want the school board to make the best decision based on all of the information available.

The subject brings to mind the old Veteran’s Stadium in Philadelphia and the argument that the artificial turf there was the cause of injuries to professional athletes, prompting developers to make sure that natural grass was installed at the new Citizens Bank Park and Lincoln Financial Field when they were constructed just a few years ago.

Granted, the artificial turf at Veteran’s stadium was decades old and improvements have been made to the construction process since then, but one can’t help but wonder if that surface became “like concrete” because of poor maintenance or old age.  There is a price tag that goes with proper, regular maintenance and turf life expectancy.  There needs to be a guarantee for installation and maintenance and who will be held accountable if either is not performed properly.

Then there’s the nagging issue that, as of October 31, 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) still hasn’t determined if toxic chemicals, found in the ground up tires used to provide cushioning in many turf fields, are dangerous.

Last July, the Consumer Product Safety Commission launched a study to see if the turf fibers posed a health threat and determined that there wasn't any.  That left the EPA to assess the tire particles.  Used tires typically contain numerous toxic chemicals, including mercury and lead.  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 determine if a full study was warranted.  The raw data — collected about 3 feet above the fields — show minimal risk according to the EPA but the results are still being analyzed.

In July it was reported that an EPA official wrote in a September 2009 letter that the agency was not assessing the health effects of tire crumbs yet.  Instead, EPA is evaluating monitoring methods for testing those crumbs.  In other words, they’re not testing yet—they’re still trying to figure out how to test.

There is artificial turf available without tire crumbs; however it is reported to be more expensive.  In today’s litigious society, that should be considered as part of the turf decision.