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Tuesday, March 07, 2023

Veterans Stadium’s Artifical Turf Had Cancerous PFAS, New Report Finds

Veterans Stadium, for all its grit and guts and glory, harbored a dark secret: chemicals in the artificial turf, the AstroTurf once proclaimed as a futuristic technological wonder, known to cause cancer and other deletrious effects. And not just any chemicals, but the “forever” chemicals called per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known collectively as PFAS, already infamous in the Philadelphia area and sparking scandal in communities around the country.

That’s according to a new investigative report from the Inquirer, run by reporters who purchased souvenir samples of the old Vet turf online and commissioned diagnostics through a local Eurofins Environmental Testing laboratory.

It’s the first study of its kind definitively linking PFAS to the Vet’s playing surface, which has already been under scrutiny and faded from style for a generation due to the number of joint injuries it caused players.

Six former Phillies who played at the Vet, which was the home of both the Phillies and the Eagles from 1971 to 2003, have all died from glioblastoma, a form of aggressive brain cancer. The names are so familiar to those of that broken golden age of Philadelphia baseball: Darren Daulton, David West, John Vukovich, John Oates, Ken Brett, and Tug McGraw.

RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: March 07, 2023 at 05:51 PM | 19 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
  Tags: phillies

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   1. The Duke Posted: March 07, 2023 at 10:47 PM (#6119884)
You'd have to think that the Pirates, Cardinals, Reds, Astros, and others would have similar issues. And Frankly, other teams were in those stadiums a lot as well. Ought to be easy to find correlations. I wonder if it's the turf in Philadelphia or some other issue unique to the stadium because a lot of other players spent a lot of time on Astroturf fields
   2. cardsfanboy Posted: March 08, 2023 at 12:15 AM (#6119898)
Honestly, if someone is questioning fields, you almost have to think Kansas City, they had something like 3 players/coaches in a short time period get brain cancer or something like that.
   3. tell me when i'm telling 57i66135 Posted: March 08, 2023 at 12:23 AM (#6119899)
Honestly, if someone is questioning fields, you almost have to think Kansas City, they had something like 3 players/coaches in a short time period get brain cancer or something like that.
someone didn't RTFE....
Six former Phillies who played at the Vet, which was the home of both the Phillies and the Eagles from 1971 to 2003, have all died from glioblastoma, a form of aggressive brain cancer. The names are so familiar to those of that broken golden age of Philadelphia baseball: Darren Daulton, David West, John Vukovich, John Oates, Ken Brett, and Tug McGraw.



that seems to be exactly what this article is talking about. i'd imagine kansas city's turf is/will be getting the same testing done, and if they find the same chemical, in similar concentrations, that could be the most likely explanation for what's been happening.
   4. bookbook Posted: March 08, 2023 at 06:48 AM (#6119910)
Many high schools throughout the US use artificial turf. Has it been established that the modern turfs are less toxic than those earlier versions?
   5. McCoy Posted: March 08, 2023 at 09:09 AM (#6119919)
I believe that used tire substance that they use causes problems. I think lung cancer. Not sure if they still use it.
   6. My name is Votto, and I love to get Moppo Posted: March 08, 2023 at 10:42 AM (#6119929)
The biggest source of this class of chemical is in fire-fighting foam (airports and military installations), chemical manufacturing, and household products like Gore Tex and Teflon. I wonder if it was used in turf because of its hydrophobic effects.

That said, I'm not aware of any link between this class of chemicals and brain cancers. There's stronger links to kidney cancer and developmental effects.
   7. Traderdave Posted: March 08, 2023 at 11:29 AM (#6119930)
I recall a quip by a teammate (forget who) that Dykstra spat so much tobacco juice on the turf that one could get cancer just from sliding on it.
   8. sunday silence (again) Posted: March 08, 2023 at 01:12 PM (#6119945)
The kicked this article around on reddit. It doesn't seem strictly scientific and the levels they found of the psas or whatever were seemingly common. Not sure if any conclusions can be drawn. Note there have been similar situations involving the ny giants (lockhart, athas, karl nelson etc) ae well as I think the old LA rams and lou gehrigs.
   9. sotapop Posted: March 08, 2023 at 02:34 PM (#6119956)
FYI, this is the same stuff that was the focus of the Mark Ruffalo movie a few years back, "Dark Waters." This has all stuck in my head since I wrote a magazine piece about the attorney who brought the whole thing to light.
   10. cardsfanboy Posted: March 08, 2023 at 06:07 PM (#6119976)
that seems to be exactly what this article is talking about. i'd imagine kansas city's turf is/will be getting the same testing done, and if they find the same chemical, in similar concentrations, that could be the most likely explanation for what's been happening.


I just thought that it has always felt like the Royals was bigger number, but it turns out to be about the same number, and not all of them were brain cancer Brett, Killebrew, Bob Tufts, Paul Splitorff, Dick Howser, Dan Quisenberry, Joe Beckwith.
   11. Steve N Posted: March 08, 2023 at 07:09 PM (#6119979)
It seems to me that the grounds crew would spend more time on the turf than the players. Are there more cases of glioblastoma than should be expected?
   12. A triple short of the cycle Posted: March 08, 2023 at 08:39 PM (#6119986)
Or the workers who make the turf.
   13. ERROR---Jolly Old St. Nick Posted: March 09, 2023 at 09:20 AM (#6120013)
If only the Phillies had listened to Dick Allen, who said he didn't want to play on any surface that his horses couldn't eat.
   14. base ball chick Posted: March 09, 2023 at 09:40 PM (#6120060)
checked it out - best i can find (astros daily) oly 1 ex-stro died of brain cancer and that was anthony young. theres a bunch if guys died of cancer but the kind wasn't known. lots of dead guys had no specific cause of death known

   15. ERROR---Jolly Old St. Nick Posted: March 10, 2023 at 07:56 AM (#6120068)
Pretty much any Astros player since about 1970 who's already died had fallen short of a normal life expectancy.
   16. Never Give an Inge (Dave) Posted: March 10, 2023 at 11:14 AM (#6120078)

#10, yeah I remember Bob Tufts used to talk about this occasionally given his own cancer diagnosis.

For those more familiar with the issue, what's the mechanism by which playing on turf containing these chemicals could cause cancer? Where they have caused problems elsewhere it is, I believe, because they got into the drinking water, but that wouldn't be the case here.
   17. It's regretful that PASTE was able to get out Posted: March 10, 2023 at 12:04 PM (#6120082)
I recall a quip by a teammate (forget who) that Dykstra spat so much tobacco juice on the turf that one could get cancer just from sliding on it.


Opponent, not a teammate--it was Andy Van Slyke.
   18. Der-K's enjoying the new boygenius album. Posted: March 10, 2023 at 03:35 PM (#6120093)
neither here nor there, but my partner's mom is dying from this type of cancer and is from/lives in an area (maybe _the_ area?) that's known for having pfas in the water (parkersburg wv). apart from that it's not clear that pfas played a role there (i mean, it's certainly possible, but cancer is weird), that's obviously a more direct intake route than occurs to me with playing on turf. (i am not a doctor)
   19. Never Give an Inge (Dave) Posted: March 11, 2023 at 12:19 AM (#6120124)
#18 I’m sorry to hear that.

Also unrelated, but a former co-worker just posted on social media that today was the eighth anniversary of her surgery to remove a brain tumor from this same type of cancer. I have no idea if there’s any connection to PFAS.

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