To the editor:

This is in response to Hans Scholl’s letter from earlier this month. 

As a majority of you know I am for youth sports and pro turf. I would not have buyer’s remorse and neither would a lot of other people because we all know the impact the fields in this town have had on sports for many years. 

I have done my homework. I have been researching this for 20 years and have seen so many advances in this product. 

All I ever read is the negative and false information that is put out. 

Here is the truth: There are no major side effects from synthetic turf fields. There are abrasions from turf and also natural grass. There have been tests that compare crumb rubber fields to natural turf of 115 degrees to 97 degrees on a hot day, they did not test organic to natural. 

The town advertised a field walk to view the town fields and a field trip to the new East Providence turf fields to compare the two different fields. The 100 percent recyclable football field in EP was nice and cool compared to the baseball and soccer fields which had crumb rubber. 

There are no chemicals applied to the fields to fight against mrsa, the natural light and rain clean it just like natural grass. I have been in town 52 years and have never seen the football field flood or the middle school fields flood. If that is the case there will be more chemicals in the river from houses. Organic materials from the fields would decompose. Synthetic turf fields do not use chemicals or fertilizers that will leach out into the earth.

The negative people put out false information and are the ones clouding the truth.

The town tried organic fields 10 to 15 years ago. The town went as far as to make an organic commission, the town spent $50,000 back then to do the school fields which was the total budget back then. All that it did was grow the weeds better and did not kill the grubs. When the organic commission put out to bid for organic, it was three times as much as the regular fertilizer that the town used. That is not cost effective.

You quote that pfas will pollute the water from synthetic turf. That is far from true, we love our grass in town. The rain run off pollutes the water, especially if you fertilize your lawn. Try comparing all the products that you use in a day full of pfas it’s not synthetic turfs you should worry about. 

You say there are no plants to recycle synthetic turf, but that’s not true. There are two operational plants now — one in Louisiana and the other in Texas. I bet you that you can’t say that about solar panels or wind turbines and electric car batteries. 

Here is a report of a lot of products that contain pfas used every day

https://www.brockusa.com/know-the-truth-your-bathroom-cabinet-has-more-pfas-than-artificial-turf/?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-

There are A lot of questions and answers you can find from the 2019 ad-hoc committees report on turf fields. Here is the link https://www.barrington.ri.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1453

Thanks.

Tom Rimoshytus

Barrington