Amy Griffin is associate head coach of the University of Washington women's soccer team, and some of her players were falling ill due to artificial turf. Amy came to PEER for help bringing worldwide attention to the dangers of toxic turf. Read more about her story: bit.ly/3lbvUaB
One of her grads developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and when Amy visited her she met another ex-goalie with the same condition. A nurse in the ward said, “Don’t tell me you guys are goalkeepers. You’re the fourth goalkeeper I’ve hooked up this week.”
Amy started collecting names and was struck that goalies were more than 15 times more prevalent on the list than any other position players, with blood cancers like lymphoma and leukemia predominant. They all had something else in common - years of playing on artificial turf.
She also knew that goalkeepers spend much of practice and games diving and rolling on the turf.