Sporting Synthetic Grass Is Here To Stay

There have been a few stories in the press lately touting the demise of artificial turf for sporting stadiums which has made me wonder just how simple it must be to skew the facts to suit your story. The argument was that because some major league baseball teams are going back to natural grass stadiums the end is nigh for synthetic grass.

The truth is that nothing could be further than the truth and in the large scale of things American baseball is an insignificant speck on the world sporting stage. Sure it means something to Americans but the rest of the world? Not so much. In fact, artificial turf is growing in popularity for numerous sports around the world. Hockey, cricket, soccer, lacrosse, tennis and other sports are all taking up the benefits that are gained though replacing natural grass with the synthetic equivalent.

The gains in playing time have been phenomenal, the injury rate (claimed to be greater due to synthetic grass) is still high due to the uneven playing surface that non-elite sportsmen and women have to play on.

The technology involved with synthetic grass continues to progress something that you know is not going to happen with real grass. Let’s face it, grass is grass and it’s not going to get any better than it already is. In fact, some of the great breakthroughs involving “natural” grass in football stadia has involved the use of plastic mesh down a the grass roots level binding the sod together.

More and more clubs and local groups are taking up the opportunity of installing synthetic turf in the playing fields and playgrounds of the area because they know it is more reliable than grass and the weather. When you lose over half the season because your home ground is a wasteland dump of mud and water too many years in a row something is bound to snap.

Fears Still Exist About Artificial Turf

Parents around the country are still concerned about the apparent dangers of artificial turf and the risks the rubber granule infill poses. Injuries such as turf burn and the toxins that may be found in the fill as well as the temperature at which the surface can heat to in summer are among the concerns.

Studies in athletes have also shown increased risk for wound infections when playing on these surfaces. There have been conflicting studies surrounding some of these issues with one study clearing the risk of poisoning by either coming in contact with the synthetic grass or by ingesting the rubber granule particles.

There have even been calls for a moratorium on installing artificial grass until further studies are done and parents fears are allayed. The fact is, there are a lot of new products in the market to use as grass infill in place of the more common rubber granule derived from recycled car tires. These products are more expensive but they are also much safer to use, some come from natural products and all have a range of advantages over the cheaper, but dirtier rubber granule.