Soccer legend Amy Griffin became a citizen scientist, but not by choice. A player and coach for over 30 years, she was approached first by two kids who grew up in the same leagues and played on the same fields — and who both had cancer. Soon thereafter, she knew nine players with cancer. That is when she started keeping track. She calls it “connecting the little black dots.”
Those little black dots are the residue of crumb rubber created by recycled tires used in artificial turf fields and playgrounds. When a ball bounces on the field, a spray of black dust arises. Goal keepers, in particular, play low to the ground and ingest a large amount of this residue through breathing, cuts and their eyes. A typical elite goalie explains Griffin is drilled in catching a bouncing ball 100 times per practice. The black dotes become embedded in their skin and clothing. Over a childhood and college career in athletics, that numbers thousands of exposures to a substance known to contain over 100 carcinogens.
“I am just a soccer coach; I am not an armchair epidemiologist,” says Griffin. Yet players and families have continued to reach out to her. “Amy’s list,” as she calls it, now numbers 260 athletes, mostly soccer players. A disproportionate number, 59 percent, are goal keepers (goal keepers only represent 10 percent of the members of a team). Players have developed many types of cancers that are usually geriatric diseases, but most have some form of lymphoma. “I have a face to attach to every number here,” Griffin said as she presented data on the 260 kids on the list.