In August, Nerf the Turf

[XLFD]

As the Astroturf on Ludington's football field reaches its first birthday, some words of caution need to be stated or restated as regards practice and playing on the artificial athletic surface.  Your children or grandchildren may be in the soccer or football program with the school or similar activities ran by the local recreation board, so you should be aware of the hazards of this surface during this time of year, when the air temperatures get above 80 degrees and the temperatures on and above this surface can rise 60 degrees or better above that.  

On Friday, the Ludington Torch went to Oriole Field with our trusty hand-held point-and-click thermometer, the same one used to get consistent and accurate readings during the maple syrup season.  We often see high readings on this when pointed at boiling sap, but we were mildly surprised that we saw this high reading 6 inches off the ground on the sidelines when the air temperature was an even 80 degrees Fahrenheit: 

Readings would vary across the field depending on the location and color of the Astroturf, but it was consistently in the 130s when held within a foot above the ground.  Of course, I could feel the effects myself of being in intense heat, the sweating and discomfort, and even when the thermometer was five feet over the ground, the intervening air was registered at 130 degrees, or fifty degrees above the official temperature.  This was even with a light wind; it was with palpable relief when I retreated from this heat island.

After vacating the area and going over to a natural grass field, I felt much better.  And no wonder; even though this field had full sun exposure and the grass was outside of any irrigation system, the green and sometimes dry-gray grass registered only 90 degrees:

The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association puts out a manual for coaches regarding athletic activity in higher temperatures, usually considering the heat index.  Looking at the conditions on Friday we see the following:

If the air temperature above Oriole Field is 80 degrees, the high humidity (92% was the average) would make the heat index slightly uncomfortable and feel like it's 86 degrees, but when the air is 130 degrees, it feels infernally hot, as seen by this heat index calculator:

When you consider 454 degrees, that's flesh dripping off the bone hot, and it's a place where you don't want our healthy kids around when they don't need to be.  If we follow the guidelines in the MIAA booklet, we should never be using an artificial turf field when the outside temperature is eighty degrees and be very careful when it's in the mid-70s, as the turf retains the heat as we have seen in these sultry summer days.  

This should not be newsworthy; this should be common knowledge and common sense that coaches should have under their hairline and apply when it comes time to practice football and soccer skills in the summertime.  There's plenty of places to find the detrimental short and long-term effects of heat exposure, such as the manual already shared, medical websites, and Astroturf's impact, such as this article showing shoes melting on turf in the heat of Texas.

Saturday, I went down to Oriole Field to get some more readings around noon.  The forecast indicated it would be less humid but slightly warmer than the prior day and I figured I could probably get one of those elusive140 degree readings, since I missed the hottest hour on Friday.  The 81 degrees was apparently too hot for pickleball players on their surface that retains less heat than Oriole Field, but it wasn't stopping a dedicated student athlete from practicing at Oriole Field, as seen below.

I found some shade to watch the student athlete do some drills that were probably more than what he should have been doing in that environment, where the heat index was likely over 400 degrees.  I could feel the effects of the heat island created by the couple acres of Astroturf, I stayed around long enough to witness any ill effects on him.  I doubt this was good practice for him, as the sweltering heat is well known to inhibit athletic performance, and some effects may be long lasting.  

I didn't feel like preaching to him about the hazards of artificial turf, if he chose to practice at Oriole Field, he apparently lacks enough common sense to play on one of the cooler fields, so it's unlikely he would listen.  I hope; however, that our coaches do have more common sense and monitor the temperature on their fake field when they take his peers out to practice and alert their charges to the potential hazards of practicing by yourself at Oriole Field when the air temperatures get above 75 degrees. 

[Willy]

It's bad enough that kids play on this turf and are exposed to the material which make up the astroturf field. Another big concern I have is what sort of toxic vapors, gases or fumes are filling the air on and around these fields. There must be some sort of way for a County or State Health Dept. that can check to make sure that kids are not breathing in any fumes that may harm them. I know there are many so called "sniffers" that can detect a myriad of gases and vapors so there must be some  way to test  these fields to determine if they are actually  giving of noxious fumes. I wonder if an ordinary smoke-monixide detector would pick up any traces of fumes coming of a astroturf. Just a thought.

https://www.co2meter.com/blogs/news/types-of-gas-detectors

[XLFD]

The LFD has a gas detector that picks up a lot of different hazardous gases that one may encounter on fire scenes, it would be interesting to see them use one of those over at Oriole Field on a humid and sunny 80-degree day and see what might be triggered.

One of the big issues that you brought up and I've wondered about before is volatility of the hundreds of organic compounds that are found in crumb rubber made from ground up tires.  You can smell new tires pretty good when you go to a tire store, but it's likely that they or the tire manufacturer will not be able to tell you what that smell is, because it's often considered trade secrets.  Once you put 50,000 miles on that rubber, you likely won't smell anything because most of the worst stuff on the surface has already gone into the environment.

But turf companies grind those down and release the hidden essences of some potentially hazardous carcinogens, and when they were installing this field, the rubber had that new tire odor because a lot more surface area was just getting exposure for the first time.  It's sad that the people who want this stuff in order to save mondo maintenance costs (which is questionable if you try to properly maintain the field), will not argue about the possibility that the football and soccer players who will use the field may be facing long-term health effects because of exposure to volatile hydrocarbons. 

Some may only come out when the ground is 140 degrees, indicating that it will be even hotter inside the center of the inches of crumb rubber just under the surface.  Go out to Oriole Field when it's very hot, then go out when it's not.  Unless I'm imagining things, you should smell a much different odor when it's hot, suggesting that some gases are being released due to the heat.  That's alarming to me, since I have little or no idea what that smell is, I just know that I'm not dead yet.

Asbestos was an organic wonder product back in the day, until it was found to be very dangerous.  We wouldn't let our child play on a field of asbestos, but we may unknowingly be letting our precious kids play on a future hazard like 'asbestos'.