NANTUCKET — The spring season for lacrosse is just starting, but the sports field at Nantucket High is empty of athletes, its grass field scarred with divots and streaks of mud.
School officials and the athletics community want to replace the battered field, also used for football games, with artificial turf. But in a twist on an old concern about the safety of fake grass, some parents worry the synthetic turf is stuffed with chemicals that pose a risk to their children as they run, dive, and roll on it.
On Thursday, the Nantucket Board of Health is expected to weigh whether to ban synthetic turf, not just from the playing field, but entirely from the island. If it does, Nantucket would be the latest of a small number of Massachusetts communities that have rejected artificial grass as part of a broader reckoning over toxic pollutants in everyday consumer products that have become nearly impossible to avoid.
“The direction that the science is going in just leads me to believe that it’s not as safe as we’re being told,” said Ayesha Khan, a parent who cofounded Nantucket PFAS Action Group after her husband, a firefighter exposed to forever chemicals through his work, was diagnosed with cancer.
The argument is especially charged on Nantucket, where a large group of chemicals known by the acronym PFAS, or by the shorthand “forever chemicals” for their persistence in the environment and the body, have been detected in private wells and at hot spots across the island. These chemicals have been linked to a range of health problems, including cancers and disorders of the immune system. Nantucket officials contend the artificial turf will be rigorously tested and free of intentionally added PFAS.
The school district is seeking about $25 million to upgrade Vito Capizzo Stadium, where the football and lacrosse teams play. About $2 million of that is for an artificial turf field, which school officials said is expected to last 10 to 12 years. For now, school officials are limiting how often the Capizzo field is used in order to preserve its condition as long as possible during seasons.
If the Board of Health does not block the use of artificial turf, then residents will vote on the stadium funding at Nantucket’s annual Town Meeting in May and a subsequent election. Artificial turf fields are in place elsewhere on the island, including one used for youth sports.
Scott Capizzo, son of the legendary high school football coach for whom the stadium is named, said the grounds could become a point of pride for students and a motivator for them to do well in school, as his father would have wanted. But he bemoans the current state of the facility; a sign bearing his father’s name has a portion of one of the Z’s missing.
“It’s disrespectful,” he said.
Proponents of artificial turf, which has improved dramatically as a playing surface over the decades, say it is a durable, low-maintenance option that would expand practice opportunities for students. A new natural grass field, they argue, would not be new for very long, with such a high volume of play and unforgiving island weather that is being exacerbated by climate change. Across the Northeast, a shifting climate is bringing more precipitation and heavier storms, resulting in muddier grass fields with fewer chances to play sports. About 70 percent of the more than 500 students at the high school, the only one on the island, play a sport.
Madden Myers, a junior and three-season athlete, said she suffered repeated injuries during her freshman year playing soccer on grass, including a dislocated toe and finger, and a sprained ankle. She hasn’t been hurt since the team moved to an artificial turf field on the island, a difference she credits to getting off the muddy, uneven terrain.
She and other students started a petition in favor of artificial turf that collected more than 300 signatures. Students reached out to her about the physical and mental toll taken by playing on grass fields, especially for athletes whose injuries lingered.
“Not one kid rejected it,” she said.
But opponents said using artificial grass will invite a host of health risks. In sweltering weather, synthetic turf can become significantly hotter than natural grass, putting athletes at risk of heat illness and burns. Some studies have also suggested artificial turf may boost injury rates to players’ lower extremities, though the evidence is mixed.
But the greatest concern is the possibility players could be exposed to forever chemicals in the artificial turf and microplastics shed from the plastic blades. Another concern is rain washing these pollutants into the island’s main drinking water supply.
Still, it remains unclear how much exposure athletes actually experience or what the long-term health effects might be.
“We don’t have all the answers,” said Sarah Evans, an associate professor of environmental medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “But it’s important for communities to understand that the chemicals are present, and the microplastics are present, and there is a potential for them to get into the body and cause health effects.”
Timothy Lepore, a longtime doctor on the island, school physician, and School Committee member, said the risks were enough for him to oppose using artificial turf given that a natural alternative, grass, was available. He was the only member of the School Committee to vote against the stadium proposal. Speaking in his personal capacity, Lepore said his daughter and three grandchildren who live near the airport, a known hot spot of contamination, have already been exposed to elevated levels of PFAS.
“Do we need more PFAS?” he asked. “Do we need more microplastics?”
Whether the school can guarantee the synthetic turf would be free of PFAS is in question. School Superintendent Elizabeth Hallett said the field will not knowingly have any added forever chemicals, and any PFAS levels would be well below standards set by state and federal regulators.
Hallett said the budget for the project includes “aggressive testing” of the artificial turf before and after it arrives on the island. There is also a drainage and catchment system to prevent groundwater contamination, she said.
“As the superintendent, I would never want to put something in place that could harm our students or our community,” she said, adding that providing more opportunities for students to play “is very important to their wellbeing.”
Graham Veysey, an interior designer whose three daughters play sports, said she has confidence in the testing and believes the benefit to children’s mental and physical health is clear.
“Is there a risk?” she said. “There’s a risk in everything. I have to put my trust in that they’re doing their research.”
The proposal does not include crumb rubber, a common material spread between turf blades that studies have shown to contain known carcinogens.
But Kyla Bennett, director of science policy for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an advocacy group, cited a report provided to the Board of Health that tested samples of the proposed turf system. It found “trace concentrations” of forever chemicals PFBA and PFOA, which have been linked to toxic health effects. She said the levels were concerning, and even small amounts should not be dismissed given how long these chemicals persist in the environment.
“Every time you add more, the contamination gets worse,” she said. “How can they say that’s PFAS-free?”
A handful of states, including Vermont and New York, have passed laws restricting the presence of PFAS in artificial turf. In Massachusetts, several municipalities have bans or moratoriums, including Sharon, Wayland, and Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard. A spokesperson for Boston, which blocked the installation of an artificial turf field in 2022, said the city prefers natural grass fields wherever possible.
High school sports play an outsize role on Nantucket, and the unused Capizzo field stings for some families. Nantucketers look forward to the annual football rivalry with Martha’s Vineyard, and police officers and firefighters greet students returning from big off-island games with celebratory sirens at the harbor.
Travis Lombardi, the high school athletics director, said the field looks as good as it ever will this spring. “After a couple of weeks, a couple of games, it’s toast,” he said.
Kate Selig can be reached at kate.selig@globe.com. Follow her on X @kate_selig.