EPA Evidence Substantiates Turf Safety

An athlete’s time spent training for their sport is comparable to that of a full time job.  Athletes spend hours upon hours in practice; for orientation week in football, 14 hour days are often the norm.  The NLRB estimates that a student athlete will spend 1,750 hours a year performing some sort of practice.  With this many hours dedicated by an athlete, it is important that the playing surface utilized by athletes is safe.

Due to speculations brought up against the health safety of synthetic turf fields, the EPA launch a full-fledged investigation in February of 2016 to test these unfounded claims.  The initiative was aimed at finding any “gaps” in the industry’s knowledge of safety concerns regarding artificial turf products.  However, even after almost a year and a half, all data has shown that “exposure to any chemicals present in recycled rubber is not meaningfully different from exposure to urban or rural soil”.  The EPA’s study is in addition to the 90 other peer-reviewed academic analyses and government reports that have confirmed synthetic turf’s safety as well.

“In short, the only issue left unsettled in the recycled rubber debate is whether the EPA and its fellow agencies will conclude their study in a timely way or at least issue a statement to the public to put a prompt end to today’s uncertainty. Certainly given this recent wave of new science, there are many better uses of taxpayer dollars and the agency’s time.”

At Act Global, we are dedicated to creating sports turf that is of the highest quality for the health and safety of athletes.  We impose strict quality controls and adhere to international standards that are proven to increase quality.

To read more, please visit:

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/338830-the-science-is-in-epa-end-the-debate-on-turf-safety