To the editor:

I appreciate that Suzanne Miller (“At Saranac Lake schools, funds for quality education should be top budget priority, April 22, Enterprise) and Diane Fox (“Enhancing education through athletics,” April 30, Enterprise) have shared concerns and information about the upcoming Saranac Lake Central School District budget vote that includes Proposition 3, a proposal to create an artificial turf athletic field. A concern I would like to add to the list is the safety of artificial turf for our athletes and the environment.

Recent studies show that artificial turf, the product of an unregulated industry, contains PFAS (“forever chemicals”), microplastics and lead. These are all chemicals that have been much in the news recently because of their link to higher incidences of diseases like cancer, birth defects, autoimmune disease, thyroid disease, diabetes and even cardiovascular plaque formation.

The potential for health issues in young athletes, as well as potential future litigation against the school district, since these chemicals are now widely identified as occurring in artificial turf, makes me wonder if artificial turf is the best choice for our children and taxpayers.

Additionally, the artificial field may not be the best choice for our environment. The proposed field is to be located inside the high school track adjacent to the high school’s wetland, which drains into Lower Saranac Lake, and so the chemicals from the artificial field may negatively impact this watershed, including drinking water wells in the watershed.

Artificial turf fields are known to cause a localized “heat island” effect, causing the temperature on the field, as well as at head-height above the field, to be scary-hot even on an average summer day, far hotter than a grass field, and hotter even than neighboring asphalt (see the New York state Department of Health link below). With more frequent occurrences of “the hottest year on record” that we keep experiencing, it is likely that the proposed artificial field would cause a major jump in heat-related illnesses and skin burns for young athletes.

I also worry about the cost to taxpayers for replacing the artificial turf with new artificial turf as the plastic inevitably breaks down, but also to the cost to taxpayers and the environment for landfilling the old turf. The turf needs to be replaced, on average, every 10 years.

The state Department of Health has a helpful website discussing public health concerns for artificial turf: https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/outdoors/synthetic_turf/crumb-rubber_infilled/fact_sheet.htm.

Mrs. Fox notes in her letter there will be a public hearing about budget proposals on Wednesday, May 8, at 5:15 pm in the high school library.

Sunita Halasz

Saranac Lake