Cover Story
SYNTHETIC TURF & HUMAN HEALTH By Thomas Serensits, Manager, Center for Sports Surface Research, Penn State Department of Plant Science
The
topic of synthetic turf is likely to spark spirited debate among sports field managers, athletes and even just your average sports fans. Strong opinions certainly exist and can make for entertaining conversation. While a number of issues are likely to be covered in such a discussion, none are more important than potential impacts of synthetic turf on human health. Fortunately, a growing collection of research is providing valuable information. Research on human health and synthetic turf can be broadly divided into two categories — 1) potential health effects from exposure to synthetic turf components and 2) injuries. Both have been the subject of numerous research studies. Studies that are subjected to the peer review process and those conducted by governmental agencies are designed to provide scientifically-sound, unbiased results and will be the focus of this article. Of course, the entire volume of related studies cannot be presented in a magazine article. This article focuses on some of the most recent and pertinent research.
8 Pennsylvania Turfgrass • Winter 2020
Potential Health Effects from Exposure to Synthetic Turf Components The vast majority of synthetic turf fields currently in use today consist of plastic fibers measuring 2 to 2 ½" tall stitched into a backing and then infilled with a combination of crumb rubber and sand. The crumb rubber is typically manufactured by grinding used tires. Crumb rubber is the subject of most research studies that focus on potential health effects from exposure to synthetic turf components. There is no debate that potentially harmful chemicals are present in crumb rubber. The question is how much of a risk do those chemicals pose to field users? Potentially harmful chemicals are all around us — from naturally occurring compounds in soil to cleaning products to cosmetic products — the mere presence of chemicals does not necessarily equate to a risk to human health. It is the potential exposure risk, or what many researchers refer to as “bioavailability,” that is the subject of numerous research studies.
