From President Sharon Herzberger's Toxic Pen: Whittier College plan for artificial turf playing field
ignores health hazards warnings...

Whittier College President Sharon D. Herzberger just can't seem to get anything right, and continues to get too much wrong. From 'The President's Pen', published in Quaker Campus on February 14, 2008 (a couple of weeks before Herzberger, joined by two other female Whittier College administrators, left on a completely unjustifiable tour of mainland China - even if any of these administrators were fluent in Mandarin, nothing was attempted that couldn't have been done at a tiny fraction of the junket's costs, or for nothing, without leaving Whittier):

"...we are developing plans to install an artificial turf field in Wallace 'Chief' Newman Stadium this summer. The field will provide a safer playing surface for our football and lacrosse teams, and because it can be used around the clock, next year we will expand our intramural program for the pleasure of all students."

Good Lord. Well, Sharon Herzberger has proven, yet again, that what comes out of a president's mouth can be indistinguishable from what comes out a horse's ass. Any individual whose athletic experience amounts to an occasional sissy walk around is likely to make a horse's ass of him- or herself when trying to speak authoritatively about sports. All athletes, down to small children, will tell you that artificial turf is more, not less, dangerous than a grass field.

President Herzberger can test her assertion, that artificial turf is a safer surface than grass, by running across and then throwing herself face down onto a grass field, and then onto artificial turf. We guarantee that Sharon will, after this test, never again falsely claim that artificial turf is a safer surface than natural grass.

In all contact sports, athletes go down, sometimes hard. Sometimes athletes slide over a field surface. In such instances, natural grass is forgiving, but artificial turf will cause abrasions and even lacerations. And do not wear cleats in games played on artificial turf. Natural grass fields allow cuts and turns, pivoting, spin moves, every move made in athletic competitions, without adding to stress loads. Wearing cleats in competition on artificial turf causes dangerously increased stress loads on athletes, most dangerously on knees.

Recent research into artificial turf playing fields has led the State of New Jersey to close, to lock, some such facilities - because lead released by decaying nylon fibers has been found to exceed, by 8 - 10 times, according to New Jersey Deputy Health Commissioner Dr. Eddy Bresnitz, the allowed lead level in soil samples. The decaying synthetic fibers release a lead-bearing fine dust that is inhaled by everyone in the vicinity of such fields, as well as by those athletes competing on such surfaces, some of the latter also digesting constituent and released dust particles.

In addition to the toxicity of decaying nylon fibers, the rubber granules used in artificial turf fields, when heated, as they are relentlessly by the southern California Sun, emit chemicals that irritate eyes, skin, and respiratory systems. At least one of the chemicals emitted has been identified as a known carcinogen, according to a study, 'Examination of Crumb Rubber Produced From Recycled Tires', conducted by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station's Department of Analytical Chemistry, at the request of non-profit Environment and Human Health, Inc., headquartered in the greater New Haven area.

The mother of a young soccer player, interviewed by ABC News in a special report on this problem, refuses to allow her child to play on artificial turf, pointing out that toxins released by synthetic fields are a danger at the facility, and at homes, where both constituent particles and released toxins are accidentally carried by athletes. Urging further studies, this concerned mother warns, "We've got our children playing in what's virtually a hazardous waste dump." Concern about artificial turf has become so widespread that an investigation of artificial turf by the Consumer Product Safety Commission is underway.

Gourmet natural foods and an international jet set lifestyle for Sharon, and Reservation rations and a toxic playing field, that becomes more toxic the longer it's in place and the more it's used, for us?

We've no doubt that President Herzberger's conversant about the lower maintenance cost of artificial turf relative to a natural grass field, that indeed appears to be her sole concern, other than exposing "all students" to this planned virtual "hazardous waste dump." Or Sharon is a good person but not swift college president, is behind our society's learning curve in this regard, too. Either way, Pres. Sharon Herzberger, yet again, fails a college leadership test. This symbolic casting away of Whittier College tradition for a fast plastic buck - at everyone's expense, and even health - shouldn't be lost on, nor be accepted by, anyone.

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