A shocking discovery has emerged concerning six former players of the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team who died from glioblastoma, a deadly brain cancer.
The media outlet, The Philadelphia Inquirer, found out that the artificial turf they played on at Veterans Stadium may have contained a possible cause for the players’ deaths: the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances. A lab tested samples of the AstroTurf from the stadium and found that there were 16 different types of PFAS in them. The University of Notre Dame researchers also tested two samples and found PFAS in them.
“It was just sad all the way around to lose all those guys. To lose them that way,” said Larry Christenson, a former Phillies pitcher. “Then you start thinking, with Vuke, Darren Daulton — it opened a can of worms: ‘Whoa. Why are all of our teammates dying? Is there something that can narrow it down?’”
The high number of glioblastoma deaths among the Phillies team is such a concern that environmental chemist Jacob de Boer called it “worrying.”
The artificial turf could reach temperatures as high as 165 degrees, releasing gases that could be inhaled. Former Phillies catcher Bob Boone recalls how the team put boxes with ice on the stairs leading up to the clubhouse to cool off players. “I’d come in and see guys standing with their feet in the boxes. I used to spend my day laughing at them: ‘Getting hot out there?’” he said.
Two studies, one from China and the other from Italy, suggest that PFA chemicals could be linked to cancer. The Chinese study found the chemicals in brain tissue, while the Italian study discovered the chemicals stored in the brains of people who drank PFAS-contaminated water.
“Once PFAS gets into [a person’s] blood, they circulate through all the organs,” explained University of Notre Dame physicist Graham Peaslee, who has studied PFAS compounds. “We know that the liver is affected. We know that the kidneys are affected. We know the testicles are affected. But nobody’s ever done the study to see if the brain is affected, because glioblastoma is such a rare disease.”
The health risk is not limited to players on a professional baseball team. There are many children who play sports on artificial turf. “Those chemicals don’t go away,” warned Sheridan Brett, daughter of Ken Brett, one of the deceased Phillies players. “Who is in contact with them now?”
The Synthetic Turf Council said that “the materials used in synthetic turf have been thoroughly reviewed by both federal and state government agencies and are considered to be nonhazardous.” The organization’s CEO Melanie Taylor added that their members will pay close attention to regulations and standards to ensure the safety of their products. But Timothy Rebbeck of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health cautioned, “We’re never going to have a good measure of what the Phillies players were exposed to.”
The dangers of PFAS are becoming increasingly clear. The people who play on artificial turf, particularly athletes who spend many hours training and competing, are at risk of inhaling these dangerous chemicals. The evidence is pointing to a link between PFAS and cancer, which makes this issue even more urgent. It is essential to study the potential health risks associated with artificial turf to ensure the safety of everyone who comes into contact with it.