The World of Sports: The tough truth about turf

As I sat down on Labor Day to write this column, a bead of sweat dripped down my nose and onto my mousepad. I used my T-shirt to do what I had been doing all day and wiped my face down. The heat wave that began Aug. 31 brought record-breaking temperatures to Los Angeles. Downtown  hit 103 F on Sunday and the heat wave is expected to last through Thursday.  

The increased humidity is making it even more unbearable. As I write this at 2 p.m. on Monday, it’s 99 F outside but feels closer to 108 F with the 38% humidity. 

The football, soccer, cross country and water polo teams all competed outside in these record-breaking temperatures this weekend — with football, soccer and water polo getting dominant victories as their seasons have now kicked off. 

I always marvel at an athlete’s ability to compete in such intense weather. Wearing football pads and running around from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the middle of a heatwave is no joke. Luckily for the football and soccer team, both Soni McAlister Field and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum use real grass instead of artificial turf – which can get up to 70 F hotter than grass. USC’s other athletic fields, including Cromwell Field and Brittingham Field, aren’t as well suited to the heat as each are equipped with synthetic turf. 

Not only is synthetic turf hotter than grass, it is also more dangerous for student athletes as well. The chances of suffering a non-contact lower extremity injury on a synthetic turf field are 28% higher than on a natural grass field. Additionally, contact between an open wound and the field has the potential to cause infection. 

While artificial turf is much easier to maintain and eliminates the need for insecticides with harmful chemicals, it imposes clear dangers to athletes. Additionally, replacing natural grass fields with artificial turf is harmful to the climate for a number of reasons. 

Artificial turf often uses recycled tires as an infill to hold the grass in place and provide cushion for the athletes. However, with a variety of chemicals — including zinc and lead — often found in tires, athletes are at a greater risk of being exposed to carcinogens when playing on turf. Using recycled tires also leads to the spread of microplastics, which can cause lung damage and even cancer. 

The harmful chemicals used in synthetic turf can also harm wildlife, as stormwater runoff can carry zinc and other pollutants into nearby bodies of water, contributing to the already overwhelmingly increasing pollution from plastic that already kills over 1 million marine animals per year. 

With no ability to drain rainwater, artificial turf fields can also cause local storm systems to build up and overflow — requiring flow control mechanisms and water detention systems. This requires digging up soil, which in turn releases stored carbon into the atmosphere from the microorganisms living beneath the ground. The production of artificial turf also requires fossil fuels.

The production of the materials used in turf, such as synthetic fibers made of nylon, polypropylene or polyethylene, requires burning fossil fuels further increasing the carbon footprint of installing artificial turf fields. Plus, all turf surfaces must be replaced every eight to 10 years, causing this harmful production process to repeat. 

Artificial turf blocks soil access for burrowing insects, taking away the habitats of species that are dramatically declining in population. I was surprised to find out that 40% of insect species are declining in number and a third are endangered. The rate of insect extinction is eight times that of mammals, birds and reptiles. Insects are essential to the world’s ecosystem as food, pollinators and nutrient recyclers, and artificial turf  — on athletic fields or in backyards or wherever it may be used — is only contributing to their decline.  

So why are we using turf instead of natural grass for some of our athletic fields? Well, Southern California, as seen in the current heat wave, can be pretty dry. Rainfall is decreasing and the precipitation levels can’t keep up with the increasing evaporation levels. In short, L. A. is drying up and isn’t being watered quickly enough. 

Unfortunately, because it’s so dry and precipitation is declining, it makes it difficult to store water. Having a steady supply of water is crucial — we use it in so many different ways every day. One of them, which is certainly lower on the list than many of water’s uses, is lawn and field maintenance. 

Beginning in June, the city began limiting how frequently residents could water their lawns. In August, a list of L.A.’s biggest “water wasters” was leaked, exposing Kim Kardashian, Kevin Hart and Sylvestor Stallone as guilty of that dehydrating superlative. 

Maintaining athletic fields requires a lot of water, certainly more than the average Angeleno’s lawn. So, to some, perhaps prioritizing an athletic field is “water waster” behavior.

One of the most defining characteristics of climate change is that its hand is in every pot. There are few obvious answers to mitigating its effects, such as requiring those in charge of handling decisions about athletic fields (or lawns) to weigh out the environmental impact of managing their facilities. It’s just a question of priority.