By Cristina Kumka
Staff Writer
April 15, 2008

The artificial turf baseball field in Mackay Park is not hazardous to players, a turf official said last night.

Perry Dipiazza, the regional manager of Field Turf, spoke hours after news broke that artificial turf fields in Hoboken and Newark tested positive for lead contamination by the state Department of Health and Senior Services.

Field Turf supplied the material for Englewood’s artificial Little League baseball field, installed last year for approximately $230,000.

Englewood’s field wasn’t tested but Dipiazza said the field is safe because it, along with about 200 other Field Turf fields throughout the state, aren’t made with hazardous nylon fibers.

"The fields that tested positive for lead were knitted nylon fields not polyethylene," Dipiazza said. "All Field Turf fields tested were safe."

The state department issued an advisory late yesterday afternoon, warning residents and athletes that two fields, Hoboken’s Frank Sinatra Park on 5th Street and Ewing’s Lions Stadium field on the College of New Jersey campus, contained high levels of lead.

The levels were anywhere from eight to 10 times higher than the state’s residential soil standard for cleanup of contaminated properties.

Currently, there are no national guidelines for lead in artificial turf, according to the department.

The artificial fibers from three other fields in Fort Lee, Lodi and Park Ridge were sampled but did not test positive for any lead contamination.

The statewide testing of turf fields in municipal parks and colleges was prompted earlier this month after a Newark turf field was closed to the public after the department and the Environmental Protection Agency discovered high levels of lead. The field, near a scrap metal yard, was deemed contaminated after an investigation revealed that lead was found in the fibers used to make the field.

Twelve fields made of nylon, polyethylene and a mix of both were tested across the state and only two tested positive for high levels of lead.

The department is now urging the "federal Consumer Product Safety Commission or CPSC to investigate the artificial turf used on athletic fields, play areas and in homes, after New Jersey testing found high lead levels in selected samples of turf fibers," according to the state Web site.

Visit the Web site at www.nj.gov/health/artificialturf for more information.