PM to Phil Bleenor

Are you giving our children cancer? Do you enjoy it? Do you make a lot of money pimping it? It's just that your product seems to be producing a nasty little trail of lymphoma and leukemia in children - so don't be a twister.

But for goalkeepers, whose bodies are in constant contact with the turf, it can be far worse. In practices and games, they make hundreds of dives, and each plunge sends a black cloud of tire pellets into the air. The granules get into their cuts and scrapes, and into their mouths. Griffin wondered if those crumbs – which have been known to contain carcinogens and chemicals – were making players sick.

“I’ve coached for 26, 27 years,” she said. “My first 15 years, I never heard anything about this. All of a sudden it seems to be a stream of kids.”

Since then, Griffin has compiled a list of 38 American soccer players -- 34 of them goalies – who have been diagnosed with cancer. At least a dozen played in Washington, but the geographic spread is nationwide. Blood cancers like lymphoma and leukemia dominate the list.

nbcnews.com/news/investigations/how-safe-artificial-turf-your-child-plays-n220166