6 Former Phillies Players Died of Brain Cancer — and Dangerous Chemicals in Turf Could Be to Blame: Report

Dangerous 'forever chemicals' found in old samples of turf from Phillies' Veterans Stadium | Daily Mail Online

While the team claims they haven’t discovered any evidence of a connection, an investigation is casting doubt on whether the turf at the former Philadelphia Phillies stadium played a role in the deaths of six former players who developed brain cancer.

This week, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that after former players David West, Ken Brett, Tug McGraw, John Vukovich, Johnny Oates, and Darren Daulton all developed and passed away from glioblastoma, a rare and deadly form of brain cancer, the newspaper started investigating the artificial turf at Veterans Stadium, the former home of the Phillies.

“The rate of brain cancer among Phillies who played at the Vet between 1971 and 2003 is about three times the average rate among adult men,” the article stated.

When the Inquirer purchased artificial turf fragments from Veterans Stadium on eBay for their reporting, they discovered that the material contained “16 different types of PFAS, or per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances,” which are known to have “Adverse health effects.”

According to the Washington Post, PFAS, also referred to as “forever chemicals,” can exist for years without degrading.

The samples were tested by two different laboratories, according to the Inquirer.

“Once PFAS gets into [a person’s] blood, they circulate through all the organs,” Graham Peaslee, a physicist at the University of Notre Dame, told the Inquirer.

“We know that the liver is affected. We know that the kidneys are affected. We know the testicles are affected. But nobody’s ever done the study to see if the brain is affected, because glioblastoma is such a rare disease.”

PEOPLE reached out to the Phillies for comment on Friday.

In a statement to PEOPLE, the franchise shared “the frustration and sadness of losing six members of our baseball family to brain cancer.” Representatives for the team also said they consulted with experts who said there is no evidence that artificial turf can cause glioblastoma.