From the Daily News:During last week's sweltering temps, the turf reached temperatures in excess of 150 degrees, according to an infrared thermometer wielded by Geoff Croft, head of NYC Park Advocates and a longtime critic of the city's efforts to replace the parkland given to the Yankees for their new stadium.
For comparison, Croft measured the temperature of a patch of natural grass near the park on the same day and found it to be only 84 degrees.
Temperatures don't have to get into the 90s for the turf to overheat. Croft recorded similar readings of higher than 147 degrees on cloudy days when the air temperature never got higher than the low 80s.
"We understand that this is the one drawback of these turf fields," said city Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, "and we're doing all we can to address it."
The city spent an extra $160,000 to use a green-colored crumb rubber fill, which stays cooler than cheaper fill made of recycled tires. The new park will also feature three misting devices designed to cool parkgoers at the push of a button.
4 comments:
Why is this important? 99% of people who use the turf for soccer are illegals...
First of all, the turf is used for more than soccer.
Second of all, I don't care what the status is of the people using it - this is bad news. It contains carcinogens and it raises the heat index of an area. Anything planted within feet of it will die. And it's ending up costing a lot more than it should have.
First of all, you should know what you're talking about. Nothing is going to die and there are no more carcinogens in the crumb rubber than in the dirt beside it - probably less.
Secondly, a new report into the effect of crumb rubber materials used in synthetic turf fields on the environment was released on May 29th. The report was conducted by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Department of Health (DOH) concluded that the materials posed no significant environmental threat to air or water quality, and also posed no significant health concerns.
A comprehensive evaluation was conducted drawing on the expertise of both state departments. Scientists tested soil samples in wells down-gradient of synthetic turf sites, and also tested the air quality both up and down wind of similar locations.
The study found:
* No significant threat from chemicals leaching into surface or ground water.
* Lead concentrations in crumb rubber are well below federal hazard standards.
* Levels of chemicals in the air raise no concerns.
* As synthetic turf fields become hotter than grass or sand fields, prolonged contact can create discomfort, cause thermal injury and contribute to heat-related illness.
Even if the plastic and rubber artificial turf rug had no toxins -it IS just a hot, dirty, hugely expensive plastic shag rug spread with tire crumbs. It will never have grass's oxygenating, cooling, filtering benefits (and durability and longevity of well installed and organically maintained grass- the plastic and rubber have to be disposed of in 5-10 years of heavy use). The 2.5 inches of artificial turf plastic and rubber over gravel is HOT in the sun. The green is purely for deception- it could be as much as 40 or so degrees cooler if they used a lighter color. But then safety of the athletes is not really the purpose- profits for the artificial turf companies is.
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