Sunday, March 29, 2009

Artificial Turf Companies Successfully Lobbied CPSC to Not Classify Turf as a "Children's Product"

The Synthetic Turf Council and FieldTurfTarkett successfully lobbied the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) last May to make sure that their product, artificial turf, became excluded from the testing that is required of all products having to do with children: the requirement to get tested for lead levels.
Transcript of the meeting:
http://www.cpsc.gov/library/foia/meetings/mtg08/artificialturf5_12.pdf
Days after that meeting, May 15, 2008, we read a letter from Mr. Doyle, President of the Synthetic Turf Council, to CPSC Commissioner Moore, which reads in part,“We are particularly appreciative of your admonition to ensure that our product does not become categorized as a "children's product" within the meaning of eventual conference agreement on H.R. 4040. We have taken your comments to heart and are in the process of communicating our concerns to members of the conference committee.”
Why did the artificial turf industry work so hard to avoid being labeled a ‘children’s product?’ If artificial turf were to be classified as a ‘children’s product,’ lead levels would have to meet stringent standards. Turf samples would be required to be tested to verify that they met the standards. The testing would have to be conducted at independent CPSC-certified labs. Now that will not happen. Full story, click here.
So this means that synthetic turf is not suitable for children, right?