Artificial Grass on the Rise, Met With Health and Environmental Concerns
In an effort to conserve water and ease landscaping maintenance, many Florida residents, like sports facilities, have turned to an increasingly controversial solution — artificial grass.
The artificial grass market, originally limited to professional sports fields, is projected to grow by $1.49 billion between 2020 and 2024 as it moves into residential yards, according to an analysis by Technavio. Though it is marketed as a way to conserve water and minimize pesticide use, artificial grass poses a number of potential health and environmental risks.
Consumers are often unaware of the drawbacks of artificial turf because turf manufacturers only focus on its positives, said Palm Beach City Council Member Bobbie Lindsay.
“If you were keeping a scorecard, there’s many more negatives than positives,” Lindsay said. “The sales people try to tell you that you don’t have to water it. But you’re reducing green habitat, killing everything under it, and releasing off-gas in the summer.”
Background
Artificial grass systems feature synthetic “grass” fibers usually made of nylon or polypropylene that are joined to a rubber, polyester or plastic backing. Depending on customers’ needs, artificial turf systems may or may not feature a crumb rubber cushioning system made of recycled tires. Installers lay it out like carpet and custom cut it around trees and gardens
“Most turfs claim to be a pervious turf, which allows water to pass through,” said Matt Noonon, an engineer for the Winter Park public works department. “However, if you look at specific turfs, some have a rubber backing with holes that don’t really drain uniformly throughout the entire turf.”
The original artificial grass product AstroTurf was invented in the 1960s by the Monsanto Company, an agricultural biotechnology giant, born under the name “ChemGrass.” The product gained public attention when installed in the Houston Astrodome in 1966. Painted ceiling panels in the stadium prevented grass from growing, so an innovative solution was needed.
Many schools, universities and sports facilities around the world have installed artificial turf fields since then, typically for performance-related purposes. Live grass fields can be difficult to grow and maintain, especially in areas that face high traffic, frequent droughts, heavy rainfall or extreme cold.
Artificial turf has become common in residential landscaping more recently as a replacement for traditional lawns. The extreme Florida heat and rainfall can make live grass challenging to maintain, and some homeowners like the aesthetic appeal of artificial grass, Lindsay said.
Environmental Concerns
The environmental benefits of artificial grass that turf companies claim are questionable at best, according to critics such as Lindsay. The abundance of scientific research and messages from turf companies can make it difficult to determine exactly how bad the material is for the environment, though many scientists think it can be harmful in a variety of ways.
Artificial turf manufacturers like SYNLawn and ForeverLawn and products like AstroTurf claim that artificial turf greatly reduces the need for water and pesticide treatments. However, this does not necessarily mean that the turf is maintenance-free.
Biocides, bacteria-killing solutions, are often needed to keep artificial turf clean. Bacteria can linger on its surface for long periods of time, especially when animals use the turf during periods of minimal rain.
Noonan also raised concerns about its impact on local ecosystems and the wildlife they support.
“Since artificial turf is not a natural surface, you don’t get the natural environment that you need,” Noonan said. “You also don’t get evapotranspiration, the natural conversion of carbon dioxide that you see with live grass.”
Health Concerns
In addition to the many potential environmental harms, parents and athletic coaches have raised concerns about the health impact of artificial turf, specifically with the type of cushioning system used.
About 95% of all turf fields use crumb rubber infill, according to a 2016 report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This rubber usually comes from recycled tires, which can contain chemicals that are toxic to humans such as lead and manganese, among others.
ForeverLawn’s website states that more than 90 studies have been published that prove crumb rubber is completely safe, but many of these studies have been conducted fairly recently and do not show long-term effects of exposure.
University of Washington Women’s Soccer Head Coach Amy Griffin carried out a study on her past players when she noticed a surprisingly high number of goalies with cancer. She put together a list of more than 50 soccer players who developed cancer and had played on artificial turf fields. However, a later investigation by the Washington State Department of Health and the University of Washington School of Public Health concluded that these numbers of cancer were not unusual.
“We know some of these chemicals [in artificial grass] do cause cancer,” said Robert Cohen, Northwestern Professor of Medicine and Director of Occupational Lung Disease in a CBS Chicago article. “I think the frightening thing is that we just don’t have the information we need.”
Park Maitland School, an elementary school located in central Florida, was one of the first in the area to install artificial turf. Administration members decided to install it because the school has few play spaces and they are heavily used, so Lower School Principal Donna Wood said live grass did not grow well.
Park Maitland School had to redo its artificial turf fields six or seven years ago after parents expressed concerns about the crumb rubber infill. Since then, the only negative the school has seen is the cost of turf maintenance, Dean of Students and Faculty Davina Spillmann said.
Regulations (or lack thereof)
Although the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation sets standards for many building products, artificial turf does not fall under its scope. Instead, each city must decide whether or not to regulate it. Some cities such as Miami Beach, Ocean Ridge, and Key Biscayne have already enacted ordinances to regulate the amount of the material a property owner can use.
The Palm Beach ordinance which requires that at least 45% of most lots consist of open landscaped space, and artificial turf does not count toward this. However, Lindsay said this rule is difficult to enforce, and the town relies mainly on neighbors’ complaints to identify violations. For that reason, she believes the town should focus on educating the public about the environmental impacts of artificial turf instead.
Unlike Palm Beach, Winter Park is still in the process of drafting an ordinance that will regulate artificial turf. Noonon said that the ordinance will focus mainly on water drainage to ensure that runoff from rain does not flood streets.
“The city requires onsite retention for any impervious surface,” Noonon said.
He said the ordinance will not take into consider any environmental or health concerns about the material, instead leaving those considerations to consumers.
Solutions
Because natural and artificial turf both have their pros and cons, some artificial grass manufacturers like ForeverLawn offer a different approach: artificial turf without the crumb rubber infill. About 80% of ForeverLawn’s products use a sand infill instead, ForeverLawn salesman Dante Raffin said.
Off-gassing, when chemicals are released in the form of a vapor, can occur when chemical products like artificial turf are exposed to high heat. ForeverLawn’s products hold up better in high heat due to its sand infill.
“We use a new product called Envirofill that is sand coated in a recycled plastic,” Raffin said. “When it rains, the coated sand helps to evaporate the water and keep the turf cool on hot days.”
Raffin said that ForeverLawn has recently seen many customers who build custom homes and opt to lay artificial turf from the beginning.
“It takes away the use of extensive water and of chemicals percolating through the ground into our water system, and it pays for itself in a matter of five years or so,” Raffin said.
