NYC's Fake Grass Gamble: A $300M Mistake? by Patrick Arden - City Limits Magazine - CityLimits.org

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In 1998, New York City began installing synthetic turf fields in parks and playgrounds, saying the artificial material would be more durable than grass. But a City Limits investigation finds that many turf fields are falling apart, including this one at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

Soccer players examine the turf at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. 

Soccer players shout at midfield, but not about their game: The field is falling apart.

“It’s been like this for five years,” complains Israel Arreola, as he points to the open seams, torn patches and wavy folds in the artificial turf at Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Referees for public school league games already boycott two artificial-turf fields there, citing fears of liability. “This is bad: holes everywhere,” says Arreola, a Manhattan sous-chef who plays in a weekend league.

The reasons behind this buying binge have been many, ranging from the battle against obesity to an alleged cost savings on field maintenance. Artificial turf is part of PlaNYC, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's blueprint for an environmentally friendly future. Yet a City Limits investigation has found that overuse and chronic neglect has run turf ragged years ahead of schedule; price comparisons generally favor natural grass, even in the long term; and the health risks of turf—largely dismissed by the city after the destruction of one artificial field for high lead levels in late 2008—are much broader and deeper than previously reported.“Somebody’s going to get hurt.” Over the past 12 years New York City has borrowed an estimated $300 million to put 204 artificial-turf fields at parks, schools and playgrounds. An additional 52 fields are on the drawing board.

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A New Turf War : Synthetic Turf in New York City Parks From New Yorkers for Parks

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Is the first comprehensive study that identifies the issues surrounding the use of synthetic turf and offers a series of recommendations on how to determine when and where synthetic turf is appropriate in New York City’s parks and athletic fields.

The report is available online at:

http://www.ny4p.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=87&Itemid=

Angry Parents Remove Dangerously Overheated Playground Mats by Jeff Wilkins, Elizabeth Hays and Rachel Monahan - NY Daily News

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Kian Mehran-Lodge, 5, with photo of his feet, which were burned in a Brooklyn playground. Alvarez/News

These city playgrounds aren't for child's play.

Black rubber mats designed to break a child's fall turn blistering hot in the summer, soaring to higher than 165 degrees, a Daily News investigation found.

Doctors at two city hospital burn units reported seeing 16 to 18 young children with playground burns a year, mostly from the mats under junglegyms and sliding boards.

"I have nightmares," said Anne Casson, whose toddler son, Will, ditched his shoes at Carl Schurz Park on the upper East Side one day last May.

"He stepped onto the black mats and was screaming hysterically," Casson said. "When I picked him up, the skin was just hanging off his feet."

The baby spent four days in New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell, where doctors administered morphine for intense pain.

The News, accompanied by NYC Park Advocates, took the temperature of mats under junglegyms at playgrounds in all five boroughs last Friday.

"It is unconscionable that the city continues to install products in playgrounds that hurt the most vulnerable park users - small children," said Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates, who took a 166.9-degree reading on the mats at Carl Schurz. "How many more have to get hurt until someone is held accountable?"

The News requested recent statistics on the number of burns at the 1,000 city playgrounds, but Parks Department spokeswoman Jama Adams said there were "no incidents reported."

The Cassons sent a letter to city officials with a graphic photo of their son's injuries.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said signs were posted in playgrounds warning against going barefoot.

"We're not going to remove [the mats]," Benepe told The News. "Our playgrounds are the safest in the world."

Reyhan Mehran, a marine scientist from Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, said her son Kian Mehran-Lodge was 14 months old in July 2004 when he was burned at Van Voorhees Park.

"We cannot understand why the city wouldn't immediately remove material that is known to severely burn children," she said.

Doctors said the highest temperatures measured on the mats could cause burns in less than a second.

At 140 degrees, it "takes about three seconds," said Dr. Palmer Bessey, of New York-Presbyterian's burn center, which treated two playground burns within the last two weeks and treats six to eight each year.

A recent U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission handbook recommended lighter colors for playground surfacing.

Fake Turf Heat Alert - City Posts Warnings of Health Risks to Those Playing on Scorching Fields by Patrick Arden - metro

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Children swarmed the artificial-turf soccer field at Asphalt Green yesterday, but a sign at the gate might have raised a red flag for their parents.

“This field can get hot on warm, sunny days,” said the posting by the city’s Parks Department.

“If you experience symptoms of heat-related illness, such as dizziness, weakness, headache, vomiting, or muscle cramps, move to a shaded area. Drink water, rest, and seek medical attention if you do not feel better.”

This sign will soon appear at all of the city’s 94 artificial turf fields — as well as at the 68 fields planned for the future — to warn the public about the risks of overheating and dehydration.

After a decade of installing artificial turf, the city’s Parks Department is finally acknowledging what’s long been known: Fake grass get hot.

One day last month, the artificial turf at Brooklyn’s Cadman Plaza was 165.5 degrees, while a nearby plot of grass measured just 83 degrees. Waves of heat rose from the field.

“It’s outrageous,” said Josh Srebnick, a pediatric neuropsychologist who was playing with his five-year-old son, Jake.

One study cited by the Health Department in a recent report on the turf said, “At temperatures above 120 degrees, it only takes 3 seconds to burn a child’s skin severely enough to require surgery.”

The Parks Department has never taken surface temperatures, but this summer it will begin to conduct its own tests of “air quality” on hot days, said a spokesperson. It’s also “exploring” alternatives to rubber-infill turf “to make fields cooler.”

Watchdog group NYC Park Advocates has discovered the carpet-style alternative gets as hot as 160 degrees.

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“At temperatures of 120 degrees, it only takes 3 seconds to burn a child’s skin severely enough to require surgery.”

Queens Chronicle: Health Advocates Question Safety Of Synthetic Fields

by Colin Gustafson, Assistant Editor

04/19/2007

Despite scientific evidence that the rubber used in 20 synthetic turf fields in Queens contain high levels of carcinogens, the city Department of Parks and Recreation has, so far, refused to grant an independent study into potential health risks to park patrons, public health advocates charged this week.

Last year, researchers from Rutgers University found the pellets — which give the borough’s newly refurbished athletic fields a buoyant, soil-like feel — are made of recycled tires that contain high concentrations of a cancer-causing chemical, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Experts found levels of the toxin above the state’s standard for soil, after analyzing samples used in 20 Queens parks, plus 53 other sites citywide. Studies also found levels of the highly toxic benzo(a)pyrene at more than eight times the state’s acceptable level for regular dirt samples, experts said.

What the studies failed to determine, however, was whether those chemicals could be absorbed into the human body. Now, public safety advocates are urging Parks officials to grant a follow-up study to determine whether park-goers are being exposed to the toxins — and if so, what dangers the potential exposure poses, if any.

“These pellets get into your shoes and rub against your skin when you’re playing soccer, so what impact does that have?” asked John Collins, a spokesman for Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum. “Kids eat dirt and are rolling around on these fields every day. What impact does that have? These are questions we need to have answered.”

This week, Parks officials contended that advocates may be overstating the possible health risks. “Synthetic fields are perfectly safe and may be more environmentally friendly than ‘natural’ grass fields,” said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe in a statement, adding that pellets in city parks were the same materials used at Rutgers University’s fields and Giants Stadium.

William Crain, a CUNY professor who first raised the possibility of a public health risk, has repeatedly urged Benepe to let researchers take two handfuls of pellets from one park in each borough in order to conduct the follow-up tests. Parks officials said they would consider that request, but had advised Crain to seek pellet samples from the manufacturer — not from city parks, where the rubber may be “compromised” by environmental contaminants.

In Queens, parks with synthetic fields include: Glendale’s Forest Park, Woodhaven’s Highland Park, Jamaica Estates’ Rufus King Park, Woodside’s St. Michaels Park and Reiff Park, Springfield Gardens’ Montebellier Park, Rosedale’s Brookville Park, Corona’s Park of the Americas and Hinton Park, Ozone Park’s Southern Fields and Addabbo Memorial Park, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Middle Village’s Juniper Valley Park, Bayside’s Raymond O'Connor Field, Long Island City’s Queensbridge Park, Laurelton’s Idlewild Park, Jamaica’s Roy Wilkins Park and Liberty Park, Flushing’s Kissena Corridor Park and Ridgewood’s Joseph Mafera Park.