Calif. to Ga. turf firms: 'get the lead out'

The State of California is suing several Georgia firms that make artificial grass, over lead-based pigments used to color the turf.

A number of Dalton-based companies, and one in Florida are among those named in the lawsuit.

California’s Attorney-General, along with the Center for Environmental Health, charge that lead-based colorants in the fibers can rub off, posing a possible health threat.

Lead is a know carcinogen, and can cause birth defects.

But Peter Farley of Beaulieu of America, one of the firms named in the suit, says their products comply with California’s safety laws:

“We have already reformulated our products to manufacture them with pigments that do not contain any trace amounts of lead whatsoever. And our testing revealed that there were extremely low levels that could be present, but again: there’s no exposure risk.”

Rick Doyle, president of the Atlanta-based Synthetic Turf Council, says they are a “responsible industry,” and are working with California officials to resolve the issue.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of environmental and health issues.

Perdue in D.C. urging S-CHIP fixes

Governor Sonny Perdue was joined by four fellow governors on Capitol Hill today, imploring U.S. lawmakers to re-examine how the national health care program for low-income children is funded.

Perdue was flanked by his counterparts from Mississippi, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Washington State. They were there to deliver their concerns to a House subcommittee over how S-CHIP, or state children’s health insurance programs, is supported on the federal level.

Perdue says Georgia’s program, known as PeachCare, has worked too well, to the point of being penalized.

"We’ve enrolled so many kids in S-CHIP that our percentage of uninsured children has dropped dramatically. And because of this flawed funding model--that partially bases states’ allotments on the number of uninsured children--Georgia, along with our neighbors like Mississippi and North Carolina, are facing growing shortfalls".

Perdue says the growth of Georgia by nearly a million people in five years is not reflected in the money it gets from the federal government. Georgia’s PeachCare program serves more than 230-thousand low-income children.

Congress recently passed an extension for S-CHIP, but without further action, funding would go dry by April 2009.