Unhealthy and Unwise and HOT
Click here to DO something about it. And see below for why we need to stop artificial turf:
Stop installing artificial turf ball fields in New York. Here’s why:
1) Ouch
Athletes suffer more foot and ankle injuries, and female athletes also experience more ACL tears on artificial turf fields. High temperatures on the fields can cause blisters, dehydration, cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke. The young are especially vulnerable.
2) Plastics to Microplastics to you
Synthetic grass breaks down over time, becoming tiny particles that enter our air, water, and bodies. According to Consumer Reports, “…microplastics act like magnets for additional toxins, picking up pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chemicals now banned from manufacture in the U.S. but still present in the environment.” In addition “Off-gassing” of harmful methane and ethylene is what happens when these petrochemical products deteriorate.
3) Hot hot hot
In September 2024 the first new piece East River Park opened. As officials cut the ribbon at the giant artificial turf field, the air temperature was 69°. The turf’s temperature was 99°. It was early. Later it would warm up more. Synthetic turf runs 35° to 55° F hotter than natural grass on sunny days. These heat islands add to the city’s higher temperatures and to the warming planet. The dangers are to players too (see Ouch, above).
4) Dead dead dead
Those big synthetic grass fields harbor no biodiversity that would contribute to health and reduce pollutants. No heat-absorbing grass. No healthy microbes in the soil. No habitat.
5) Recycling is not a thing
Because of its many different materials, synthetic turf does not lend itself to recycling. It’s big. It ends up in dumps.
6) Expensive
Artificial turf fields cost $1 million more or less for materials and installation. It lasts up to 10 years. Grass takes more care, especially to maintain a good playing surface. However, maintenance of real grass can be efficient and cost-effective. Regular aerating and adding seeds will keep grass fields healthy and able to quickly recover. It lasts indefinitely. It can be flooded with salt water and will be fine (as ours were after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.) Inundated synthetic grass has to be completely replaced.
It’s easier to get money for capital projects (a big fake grass field) than to fund maintenance staff and machinery for the Parks Department.
Besides, supposedly carefree artificial grass does need maintenance—cleaning, replacing infill—the beads that hold the grass erect—and removing leaves (same as for grass).
Wouldn’t our city’s economy be better off if we employed more people to take care of grass fields? Wouldn’t our health and our city’s air, water, and temperatures be better with grass?
Not Good Enough
The newest requirements by the city for new artificial turf fields eliminate a couple of hazards, but there’s no such thing as non-toxic synthetic grass
East River Park Action filed a Freedom of Information request this summer to find out what the city requires in artificial turf that it is installing in fields across New York City. The specifications confirm the hazards of synthetic grass. (See PDFs further down on this page for the full specs).
The common plastic materials that go into making the grass are the same material that we use constantly with bags, bottles, food containers and more. As these products break down, we inhale and ingest those microplastics. The turf is especially hazardous because of the deterioration from weathering and combining with other substances that go into the manufacture of the fields. That can include the adhesives, backing, UV coatings and dyes.
UV inhibitors, for instance, slow but don’t stop deterioration of the plastic grass. The type of this stabilizer is not specified by the city. Such products can contain endocrine disrupters—not good for growing children.
Infill—the beads that keep the plastic grass from flattening—are sand coated with an antibacterial and dyed tan or green. The coating is made of polymers–compounds made from petroleum products. The composition of the dye for the beads or turf is not specified by the city. We know it leaches from the field. At Pier 42 just south of East River Park, where there has been a field for more than a year, blades of plastic grass, green infill beads and green scum fall into the East River. What’s in that dye and the polymers and what do they do to us and to the fish and wildlife along our shoreline?
What has changed in the new requirements:
New York’s updated specifications for new artificial turf eliminate crumb rubber infill with its notorious carcinogens and also does not allow PFAs (harmful “forever” chemicals) used in manufacturing.
Meantime, older fields with rubber infill and PFAs are still all over the city. Until they are replaced (with real grass is our dream), those hazardous crumb rubber and PFA-containing fields are still extant.
Eliminating the most hazardous materials on new fields still fails to protect the health of players or the environment.
The state will also require, starting in 2026, that carpet and turf manufacturers provide free disposal of their products. Nice. That doesn’t mean they have to recycle them. Synthetic turf does not lend itself to recycling.
There is a solution to all of these environmental and health problems—natural grass fields.
What we can do
How to stop artificial turf in New York:
What’s happening around the city, state, nation and world:
Deep dive into facts and figures:
Our own alarming experience on the Lower East Side:
We made a Freedom of Information Law request (FOIL) to find out what the requirements are for artificial turf in New York City. We received results. Long chain synthetic polymers.
Yesterday, one dad told me his kid was more prone to injury on a badly maintained grass field than on artificial turf. We agreed we need proper maintenance if we are to have real grass. We also need more fields because grass does need to rest.
Advocate for more Parks funding and more fields when we advocate to replace artificial turf.
Emphasize the chemical effects on health and the heat island effect caused by synthetic turf, which will harm your child’s future…and the planet’s.
This is nonsense — please delete this post. You want school kids to play in the mud? Ruin their shoes, spend a lot of field maintenance, spend a lot on cleaning school hallways and homes?
Please focus on East River Park and not this fake issue.
Two pair of my husband’s softball shoes MELTED from the heat of artificial turf fields, and he tracked in loads of (carcinogenic) crumb rubber infill every time—even though he’d spend a lot of time digging out the little beads from his cleats. So which kind of field is cleaner and better for your shoes?
You make a good point that kids shouldn’t have to play in mud—that’s why we need proper maintenance, which means a decent maintenance budget for Parks. Instead we spend vast amounts on capital projects like artificial turf. With proper care, real grass fields are more economical in the long run—and more healthy—than synthetic.
Sorry to take such a long time to reply. All-volunteer workers here, so so we are not always efficient. Best wishes, Pat