April 19, 2008 - TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is looking into the possible health hazards of lead in artificial turf installed at schools, parks and stadiums across the country.   Two fields in New Jersey were closed this week after state health officials detected what they said were unexpectedly high levels of lead in the synthetic turf and raised fears that athletes could swallow or inhale fibers or dust from the playing surface.  Link to Article Here

 This field in Hoboken is one of two closed by New Jersey because of high lead level readings.

April 18, 2008 - Toxic artificial turf? / A new concern? 
Frankly, we scoffed when we first heard of potential health issues with artificial-turf athletic fields. Just another bunch of nervous Nellies and overexcited, safety-obsessed parents latching on to yet another environmental scare of the moment, we figured. But nobody ever accused Dr. Eddy Bresnitz of being a nervous Nellie. Bresnitz is New Jersey's chief epidemiologist - the state's top "medical detective," so to speak. Usually when he shows up in the news, it's to calm people who are needlessly worried about some presumed health threat. In other words, he's not the excitable type. But this week, Bresnitz and Department of Health and Senior Services Commissioner Heather Howard called on the federal Consumer Products Safety Commission to investigate the safety of artificial-turf fields nationwide. Link to Article Here   

Texas Football Succumbs to Virulent Staph Infection From Turf

By Victor Epstein  Full Article Here

Dec. 21, 2007 (Bloomberg) -- Missy Baker recalls the moment when she realized that her football-playing son, Boone, didn't just have the flu. "He told me he was paralyzed,'' Baker said. ``I said, `What do you mean? I just saw you walk to the bathroom two hours ago.' And he said, `Mom, I can't move my arms or legs.''  Sixteen-year-old Boone, a wide receiver for Texas's Austin High School, was suffering from a recurrence of methicillin- resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, which his doctor said he got through an abrasion from playing on artificial turf, Baker said.

Texas has artificial turf at 18 percent of its high school football stadiums, according to Web site Texasbob.com. It also has an MRSA infection rate among players that is 16 times higher than the estimated national average, according to three studies by the Texas Department of State Health Services.  "This is a disease that can kill you,'' said Carolina Espinoza, a graduate epidemiology student at the University of Texas in Houston, who helped conduct one of the studies. ``If I were a football player, I would be alarmed.''  Full Article Here