Our mayor, who continues to conceal the $11.8 million initial (and estimated $18 million total in 15 years) price tag on her pet Edison Fields Project from the public in her “Mayor’s Updates”, likes to fashion herself a thinker “outside the box”. This project, though, is without a doubt a product of “inside the box” thinking.
Edison: Inside the Box Thinking
Our mayor, who continues to conceal the $11.8 million initial (and estimated $18 million total in 15 years) price tag on her pet Edison Fields Project from the public in her “Mayor’s Updates”, likes to fashion herself a thinker “outside the box”. This project, though, is without a doubt a product of “inside the box” thinking.
Artificial turf has been around a long time and is not uncommonly found on athletic fields. In fact, there are three such fields in Westfield. But increasingly, attention is being paid to the “forever chemicals (PFAS)” used in the blades of plastic grass and their backing that are used for such turf and to the heavy metals and other chemicals found in the crumb rubber and alternate materials used for the plastic grass infill.
Exposure to these chemicals can lead to cancer, liver damage, thyroid disease, fertility issues and obesity. For this reason, there’s now an accelerating trend to eliminate exposure to these chemicals.
The 3M Company recently announced that they will stop using PFAS in their manufactured products. In the Netherlands, many soccer leagues, including their premier league, have banned artificial turf and there are plans to enact a countrywide ban on artificial turf soccer fields in the future due to cancer risks. The European Union is moving in the direction of a ban. In the U.S., the State of Maine and a number of cities and counties have enacted bans, and there are presently bills in California, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont which would proscribe artificial turf. The soccer organization FIFA has banned artificial turf for all World Cups, and various leagues, teams and athlete groups have outlawed, sought to outlaw or refused to play on artificial turf.
While in her recent “Mayor’s Update” our mayor cites from the town’s “Parks Master Plan Survey” the number of households in town not having their fields needs met, she fails to tell us that in that same survey only 19 percent of respondents were in favor of artificial turf fields as upgrades, and that turf was only the tenth priority of the survey respondents.
Organic natural grass fields under the direction of a professional Sports Turf Manager are a cheaper, healthier, safer, and more environmentally friendly alternative to plastic grass and crumb rubber fields.
Please get out and vote “no” on the upcoming public question as to whether to fund this project.