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After yesterday's post that the State of New Jersey, throught its Health Department, is asking the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to investigate lead levels on synthetic turf athletic fields, the Synthetic Turf Council (STC) has parried with a press release of its own contending that the test results which the New Jersey Department  of Health and Senior Services (NJDHSS) used to claim a lead threat was real actually show that lead chromate levels on synthetic turf fields are "well below" those needed to cause harm.

Contrary to the NJDHSS' position that synthetic fields pose a "plausible" threat of lead poisoning, the STC argues that the NJDHSS tests "validated" the STC's position, "based on science and expert opinion," that lead chromate's extremely low bioavailability prevents it from being readily absorbed by the human body."

The STC claims that calculations by forensic toxicologist David Black show that a 50-pound child would need to ingest more than 100 pounds of synthetic turf to be at risk of absorbing enough lead to equal the minimum threshold of elevated blood lead.

The STC said that Black performed the same tests as the NJDHSS, using the same protocol .