there's a new astroturf that's being put down in parks by the zillions of acres. it's plastic with rubber granules that *gasp!* have been found to leach contaminants. "However, the new artificial grass raises health concerns. In particular, the base of A-Turf and similar brands includes recycled rubber pellets that could contain harmful chemicals. What's more, we have observed that on many New York City fields, the rubber pellets are also present on the surface. When one of us (William Crain) was picking up some pellets by hand, a boy told him that after playing in the park, he finds the pellets in his shoes at home at night. Because the rubber pellets are much more accessible to children and athletes than we had supposed, we decided to analyze a sample for two possible sets of toxicants -- polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and toxic metals." yuck.