POP Proposes Independent Testing of Artificial Turf Safety
In a letter to Legal Counsels representing the Park District and the City, defendants in POP’s pending lawsuit challenging the safety of artificial turf in the south field of Lincoln Park, POP urges that in the interest of public health and safety concerns the defendants agree to expedited testing by an impartial public health agency before public exposure to the artificial turf Latin Soccer field, which is being dedicated on Saturday.
The United States Centers for Disease Control; Environmental Protection Agency; the local affiliate Great Lakes Center for Occupational and Environmental Health & Safety, located at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health; the Attorneys General of California and Connecticut; and prominent physicians all over the country have issued urgent warnings about the dangers to child health and safety that exist in artificial turf fields.
Because Latin School, the Park District, the City and Alderman Vi Daley have all refused to act to secure the public safety, a lawsuit was the only recourse possible to compel them to submit samples of everything for independent testing before children are permitted on the field. Although hundreds of stories detailing the various toxic components of artificial turf abound in the news media and on the internet, no precautionary testing was deemed necessary. Like the original illegal secret deal with Latin school, overturned by POP court action, their attitude remains: “the public be damned.”
November 5th, 2008 at 08:37 PM 1) No one has "refused to act to secure the public safety." Your language is inflammatory, accusatory and inaccurate. The defendants in your latest lawsuit believe that the artificial turf used in this field is safe, and they have produced a lot of studies and documentation to support this belief. Go read the various motions to dismiss this case, including ones filed today. 2) The dedication of the field was LAST Saturday. 3) You can call it the "Latin Soccer field" in your never-ending attempt to incite hatred of Latin School, but it's not Latin's field, as you know perfectly well.
November 9th, 2008 at 08:23 PM Charlie: Today I walked past the field. As bad as the field is (makes the park seem smaller and more cramped and congested, bright lights look industrial, etc.) it occurred to me that it would have been much, much worse without this group. At least there are no bleachers, obnoxious commercial billboards, area honoring the Latin School donors, scoarboard, etc. So POP has already done a huge service to the community at large. (Not to mention the more open access.) But yes, I am still angry at the Latin School for starting this whole mess. In my view it will take many years for the Latin School to repair their reputation in the community. The Latin School brought this upon themselves; POP only reflected the public outrage at Latin rather than inciting the outrage.
November 9th, 2008 at 10:41 PM Eric: You may be right that it will take a long time for Latin to repair their reputation, but you have to agree -- if you are honest -- that POP continues to try to make this repair process as difficult as possible. They continue to attack Latin every chance possible, even though Latin has had no involvement in the field since the original lawsuit. They use blogs, radio ads, newspaper ads, letters to newspaper editors, mass mailings, multiple lawsuits and other means to attack the school. Very recently, they sent an aggressive mailing to the entire Latin parent community trying to rally Latin's own families against the school's administration. Latin would probably welcome the opportunity to start the process of rehabilitation, but POP is more interested in destroying the school than trying to make anything better. So while I applaud POP for early success, they no longer reflect public outrage against Latin; they fuel it.
November 11th, 2008 at 06:53 PM Charlie: I was not aware that POP recently contacted the Latin families. I don't know their strategy and so I can't speak to that. I will say, however, that the Latin School has shown, over a period of years, great persistence in trying to take over parts of the park. Therefore, it might not be a bad idea for POP to keep up the pressure in preparation for the next battle. After the Latin School's original proposal in ~2002 was rejected, the community may have been too complacent with the Latin School and was caught off-guard in the latest battle. Perhaps POP now feels that this wants to avoid making that same mistake. Who knows what Latin will try to pull next; they seem to never give up.
November 11th, 2008 at 09:43 PM Eric: I hear you on POP's distrust of Latin School. For what it's worth, I really doubt Latin will try to "pull" anything for a long, long time. The school doesn't want or need more angry neighbors, bad press and a huge distraction from its mission of educating kids. The field project has not only damaged the school's reputation but also taken thousands of hours of time that could have been spent tending to children and curriculum. The school's legal bills (which are probably in the $400,000 range already) climb every day as two lawsuits are still active. This is not to convince anyone to drop their guard; stay as alert as you feel you need to. It's just my opinion.