TV News Report Prop A, Artificial Turf: View Here
KQED Commentary "Plastic Grass": Listen Here
Proposition A Flawed By Hidden Plan: Sources Here
Bird Habitats: Pictures Here
Toxicity:
The passage of Proposition A (February 2008) allows Park and Rec to remove the natural grass from our athletic fields and replace it with synthetic turf made of plastic, and crumb rubber from waste tires. The crumb rubber contains hazardous chemicals, including butylated hydroxyanisole, a carcinogen, as well as lead, arsenic, zinc, chromium and cadmium. The rubber pellets sometimes land in players' eyes or mouths and get tracked into the car and home. The effects of long term repeated exposure to children or the environment are unknown.
Sources:
http://www.ehhi.org/reports/turf/turf_report07.pdf
http://www.uchc.edu/ocomm/newsarchive/news07/nov07/toxins.html
California Legislation:
On Feb. 19, 2008 California state Senator Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, introduced Senate Bill 1277, which moves to prohibit the installation of synthetic turf onto a public or private school or park until the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has prepared an environmental study. The state of Department of Public Health would also be required to prepare a public health study on the use of crumb rubber within synthetic turf before June 30, 2009 under the bill.
Source:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_1251-1300/sb_1277_bill_20080219_introduced.html
Update: Senate Bill 1277 was amended on April 8, 2008. It mandates public health and environmental studies to be completed by September 1, 2010 and has passed the Senate. With no moratorium on new synthetic fields we will continue to experiment with our children, public health and the environment. Additional legislation will be necessary.
Source:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=sb_1277&sess=CUR&house=B&author=maldonado
New York Legislation:
New York has legislation (Bill A09503) introduced by Democratic Assemblyman Steven C. Englebright that would ban new synthetic fields pending further study on public health and environmental impact.
Source:
http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A09503
Environment:
Removing grass will irreparably harm the ecosystems of the fields by destroying habitats that serve plant life, insects, and the birds that feed on them.
In San Francisco, a city with so few green open spaces, the artificial turf plan will eliminate 7% of our green park land. Also, trees along the perimeter of the fields often require removal in order to install the drainage system. Dozens of trees were removed at Crocker Amazon to prepare for artificial turf installation.
The Athena Institute, an Ontario-based nonprofit reports that to replace natural grass on just one playing field with a carbon neutral synthetic surface, and to make up for the resulting loss of carbon dioxide sequestration, you would have to plant 1,861 trees and allow them to grow for 10 years.
The replacement of natural turf with synthetic contributes to the urban heat island effect. Urban heat islands are created when grass and trees are replaced by impervious surfaces like rooftops and asphalt, which absorb heat.
This urbanization has increased average temperatures in San Francisco and contributes to global warming. Urban heat islands increase demand for energy, intensify air pollution, and increase heat-related health problems. Planting trees and vegetation help alleviate the problem, not removing them. Note the new Academy of Sciences will have a living roof not a synthetic one.
Another significant environmental drawback to synthetic fields is that their components do not biodegrade and will therefore end up in a landfill. Artificial turf used by Park and Rec has a guarantee of only 8 years.
Sources:
Athena Institute Study:
http://www.athenasmi.ca/projects/docs/UCC_project_ATHENA_technical_paper.pdf
Environmental Impacts, Habitats, Urban Heat Islands (see pages 7 -9):
http://www.precaution.org/lib/new_turf_war.060415.pdf
Urbanization In California:
http://www.act-southernca.org/Urbanization_warming_CA.pdf
Not Biodegradeable, 8 Year Guarantee (see page 7):
http://www.cityfieldsfoundation.org/Comparison_fieldturf.pdf
7% green park land:
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=5382&catid=&volume_id=317&issue_id=334&volume_num=42&issue_num=15
Bacterial Infection:
It has been well documented that there is a high frequency of turf burn injuries associated with synthetic turf. Unfortunately, these skin wounds present the perfect portal of entry for bacterial infections. With the emergence of methicillin resistant staph aureus (MRSA) infections among athletes across the country, the increased risk posed by synthetic turf cannot be ignored. The infections have caused pneumonia, bloodstream infection and death.
Without the natural antimicrobial activity of real grass, bacterial colonies survive much longer on synthetic turf. Field managers have to apply disinfectant to the artificial turf regularly.
The artificial turf companies acknowledge the problem and now sell their own turf disinfectant products. EPA regulations require that many of these dangerous products be handled only by certified applicators.
Disinfectants are applied by spray nozzles with large volumes of water or by electrostatic spray. With both methods some disinfectant is deposited on the turf being sprayed; while much of it, in the form of overspray, is sprayed into the air. These disinfectants will make it into the environment.
By maintaining our natural grass fields we can avoid exposing our children and adult athletes to the increased risk of bacterial infections and hazardous chemicals and avoid exposing our environment to unnecessary disinfectants and heavy metals.
Sources:
MRSA:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/ar_mrsa_ca_public.html
http://men.webmd.com/news/20050202/pro-football-players-pass-staph-infections
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/122207dnspofootballstaph.135e94.html
Syn. Turf/Unique Dangers by Dr. Brad Fresenburg, University of Missouri:
http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/pub/ats/news/2005/synthetic/
City of Costa Mesa Synthetic Turf Study (see page 6 and 7):
http://www.ci.costa-mesa.ca.us/council/study-session/2007-09-11/FINAL%20Study%20Session%20Sythetic%20Turf%20Sept%202007.pdf
The Truth about the Existence of Microbes in Synthetic Turf System:
http://www.csggrp.com/TRUTHS%20About%20Microbes.pdf
TurfAide Disinfectant (see all 3 pages of FAQ's):
http://www.csggrp.com/turfaide/faq.html
PSF 100 Disinfectant (note application method):
http://www.psfs.us/disinfectant
Major League Baseball - environmentally friendly - natural or artificial?:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/community/btf.jsp?content=earth_day
Bacteria on Synthetics:
http://www.athleticturf.net/athleticturf/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=372405
Injury and Temperature
Synthetic turf fields absorb sunlight and heat. On hot days the surface temperature of artificial turf rises dangerously high and games can be cancelled due to the increased risk of dehydration, heatstroke and injury; downtime when it's sunny. Synthetic turf field managers often cool the fields with large volumes of water. Online searches for synthetic turf irrigation yield pictures of plastic athletic fields with sprinklers!
Sources:
Increase in injury on days over 70°F, see Table 5:
http://www.rosenet.org/MAF/mafDocs/injuryOnTurf.pdf
Synthetic Surface Heat Studies, BYU
http://cahe.nmsu.edu/programs/turf/documents/brigham-young-study.pdf
Synthetic turf surface temperatures:
http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/pub/ats/news/2005/synthetic/
Synthetic turf irrigation:
http://www.athleticturf.net/athleticturf/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=172540
Maintenance:
Water is needed for washing, applying disinfectant and cooling on hot days. Sweeping, grooming (fluffing*), washing and applying disinfectant require utility vehicles/fossil fuels. Without proper maintenance, turf will end up in landfill (not biodegradable) even sooner than the 8-10 year life span.
City Fields Foundation maintenance budget estimate for San Francisco only includes grooming and repairs and does not include washing, disinfection, cooling or vehicle maintenance. Cost estimates are vastly lower than the City of Costa Mesa, and of field turf managers reported on athleticturf.net. With the added costs, synthetic turf becomes more costly to maintain than natural turf (see chart below).
[*fluffing (grooming): (Redistribution of infill) Synthetic fields need to be fluffed up monthly using a $60,000 ride-around sweeper. The bristles agitate the rubber pellets nestled at the base of the "grass" blades.]
Costs, Synthetic Turf is More Expensive than Natural: