Philadelphia Inquirer Reporter Tells CNN They Found 16 ‘PFAs’ In Artificial Turf After 6 Phillies Players Died of Same Brain Cancer

Philadelphia Inquirer reporter David Gambacorta told Jake Tapper that he and his colleague found 16 “PFAs” in the artificial turf at an old stadium after six Philadelphia Phillies died from the same brain cancer.

On Tuesday, Gambacorta and Barbara Laker released a story about how the artificial turf at Veterans Stadium contained 16 different toxic chemicals.

Commonly known as “The Vet,” the stadium was demolished in 2004 when the city built Citizens Bank Park for the Phillies and Lincoln Financial Field for the Philadelphia Eagles.

In 1982, the Phillies gave away pieces of the AstroTurf as a promotional item for fans. The parts of the fake grass sat on the field between 1977 and 1981. Gambacrota was a guest on The Lead Tuesday, and he explained to Tapper how the two investigative journalists found out about the toxins.

“Last year, David West he was a former pitcher for the Phillies, became the sixth former member of the team to die from brain cancer,” Gambacrota said. “My colleague, Barbara Laker, and I got curious about whether there was a potential connection between these deaths.”

“We were able to track down pieces of the AstroTurf that covered the field at Veterans Stadium in the late 1970s and early 80s, and we had them tested by two different labs. One of the labs found 16 different types of PFAs, which are another name for forever chemicals,” he said.

Tapper noted that the Eagles also used Veterans Stadium for their home games, but none of their former players have reported the same cancer that the six men who played for the Phillies had.

“We haven’t come across any reports of this with the Eagles,” Gambacrota said in an interview with Jake Tapper. “But one thing we found with The Vet, the Phillies, is that during the summer games, the turf would sometimes heat up to 165 degrees.”

“And some of the experts that we consulted with explained that would sort of allow some of the toxins in the turf to release and become airborne, so that’s one possible mode of transmission that we considered,” he said.

Gambacrota explained that Connecticut lawmakers has opened discussions to ban the fields from their state.

Ken Brett, Tug McGraw, Johnny Oates, John Vukovich, and Darren Daulton all died from brain cancer ranging from 2004 all the way to West’s death in May 2022.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article attributed that Massachusetts banned the construction of new turf fields. That was not accurate. We apologize for the mistake.

Watch the clip above via CNN.