Letter to the Editor: It’s time for officials to take crumb-rubber safety issues seriously

Editor:

Crumb rubber. Leukemia. Lawsuits. Both the Edmonds School District and City of Edmonds will likely be sued—because our children and grandchildren may very well get cancer from the crumb rubber installed on the Old Woodway High School Sports Complex and other district playfields.

Health research findings are mounting. Young women soccer players, especially goalies who have had more physical contact with artificial turf padded with crumb rubber, are showing up with leukemia. Because of carbon black and many other carcinogens in ground-up car tire infill, many more cancers will emerge in both young women and men. What will parents and grandparents do? We will sue. We will sue not only the school district but also the city.

The people of the Edmonds School District have entrusted the district with not only educating our children but also with protecting their health, fitness and well-being. The district’s actions regarding crumb rubber do not protect the health and well-being of our young people. There is no effort to act on the side of caution. It comes down to money—and power. The district is larger and richer than the City of Edmonds. Now the district is threatening to sue the city if it interferes with its use of crumb rubber. Why is it threatening to sue? This long relationship is complex and intertwined but why does the City of Edmonds have to do business with playground bullies?

Both the School District and City have been warned about the dangers of using crumb rubber by their constituents and should be held accountable. The following leaders have been put on notice: Edmonds School District Superintendent Nick Brossoit; School Board Members Kory DeMun, Gary Noble, April Nowak, Ann McMurray, and Diana White. City of Edmonds: Mayor Dave Earling, City Councilmembers Kristina Johnson, Mike Nelson, Adrienne Fraley-Monilas, Diane Buckshnis, Joan Bloom, Tom Mesaros and Lora Petso.

We appreciate and respect all the work these leaders provide. However we want them to take seriously the folly of padding artificial turf playfields with well known cancer-causing materials. We elected these officials. They are supposed to work for us, not for the crumb rubber industry.

Cliff Sanderlin and Heather Marks

  1. Well put Cliff & Heather! I don’t even have children myself & this crumb rubber is obviously a horrible idea which will have future & lasting health effects on the kids.

  2. Fortunately this is America and you wouldn’t need to have children in youth sports to have the right say what you think about substances proven to contain carcinogens being dumped onto the ground (either publically owned such as school district property or even privately owned). Hopefully we all care about all the children and care about what will inevitably end up in our groundwater and in our streams, rivers and the sound.

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