Reply to Petition to Arlington County to Ban use of crumb rubber on fields

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I prefer what Bethesda is doing: Before getting all worked up, test the fields for the detectable presence of toxins.

http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/Web-2016/Council-Members-Call-on-County-to-Test-Artificial-Turf-Fields-for-Toxic-Substances/

Science works.
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Science might not have all the answers at this point.[/quote]

Yeah, but ignorance and superstition have a spotty track record with the answers they give.[/quote]

Are you a crumb rubber lobbyist?  Or do you feel qualified to speak on this because you got a B minus in an Earth Science class?[/quote]

Not a lobbyist. Someone who believes in making decisions based on the scientific method. Statements like "Science might not have all the answers" drive me crazy. Sure, there's a lot of stuff we don't know. But what's left? Making decisions based on some combination of our fears, hopes, prejudices and wishes?  Going on "gut," like Sarah Palin?

There's a lot of fear-mongering around crumb rubber. In particular, the goalie "study" (it's not really a study but a collection of anecdotes) suffers from small sample size. As my statistics professor said, unusual things happen every day.

Synthetic fields are incredibly useful because you just get so much more playing time. The introduction of crumb rubber a decade or so ago revolutionized them, because it made them much safer in terms of injuries to the joints and from falls. So it wouldn't be cost-free to get rid of them.

But they're not perfect. When they were introduced one of the selling points was you could use them 365 days a year. Now the manufacturers are saying not to use them on the hottest days, they get too hot to be safe. That is a finding that is backed up by science.[/quote]

Reading comprehension matters.  Hence the words "at this point."  More analysis would be welcome. One huge cost, potentially, will be huge jury verdicts against counties, leagues, and coaches.  Intuitively, something seems off about these fields.  But if science persuades that that is not the case, then that is that.[/quote]

You lost me. Are you backing science or intuition?
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Science, as the final sentence makes perfectly clear.  My personal intuition makes me concerned.  Yale scientists are concerned too, as are others.  Federal scientists are following up.  I await their scientific results, as any open minded person would.  Making this a liberal versus conservative thing doesn't work here.  
[/quote]

So are you signing this petition or advocating for research first?  That would demonstrate where you are on science vs intuition.[/quote]

Advocating for further analysis, as stated clearly above.  I will evaluate the results of the federal study supported by the administration and Senator Blumenthal.

You sound like you would have trusted the cigarette companies, though.  [/quote]

No.  There was a ton of data saying that smoking was bad.  As far as crumb rubber turf goes, you have a non-scientist who has collected a list of thirty-eight soccer players with cancer.  And we have no idea whether that is statistically meaningful or not.

There is a name for this:  cancer cluster.  A cancer cluster a group of people identified by the public because a number of the group got cancer.  All of them look suspicious to the public.  Nine out of ten cancer clusters turn out to be just a random fluke.  So no, I cannot panic about something with this level of data.[/quote]

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