Plastic grass is marketed as a safe substitute for natural grass, but extreme heat, toxins, and added injuries on sports fields prove otherwise
When parents send their kids to school, they do so trusting that they’ll be safe. In these times, with school shootings all too frequent here in the U.S., the assumption of safety isn’t always justified, but fortunately the odds of a child getting shot at school are not large. There’s another more widespread hazard that gets little attention, though, and that is the use of artificial turf – or plastic grass — on sports fields.
Artificial turf has been available since the early 2000s and marketed as a safe alternative to natural grass. However, both experience and scientific studies have proven it to be quite the opposite.
Three Major Health Risks of Plastic Grass
Since more and more high schools (every high school in my Santa Clarita, California city) have artificial turf playing fields, parents should know the health risks. These are of three types: extreme heat, toxicity, and increased injuries.
Extreme heat
Janet Hartin, horticulture expert at the UC Extension in L.A. County, measuring surfaces in Palm Springs, found that when air temperatures were 100⁰ F or more, synthetic turf temperatures were around 175⁰ F.
Kelly Turner, associate director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation’s Heat Equity Initiative, says “It is one of the hottest surface materials. It is hotter than asphalt.” Turf at those temperatures can melt shoes and blister the hands, knees, and legs of students playing sports on it.
Toxicity
About 90% of artificial turf fields are made of plastic grass infilled with 40,000 shredded waste tires, or “crumb rubber.” The crumb rubber is to make the plastic grass blades stand up and to soften the fields, but its toxicity creates health issues.
An analysis of 14 samples of shredded used tires showed that they contained 92 chemicals. Eleven are carcinogenic and 20 can irritate skin, eyes and lungs. Half of the chemicals identified had not been tested by the government. However, the known carcinogens and neurotoxins included lead, mercury, VOCs (volatile organic compounds), phthalates, benzene, and toluene.
As the fields get used, the crumb rubber disintegrates and creates a dust of toxic chemicals. These can be easily inhaled and distributed throughout the body. Further, when heated, the chemicals in the plastic grass get released as gases, making them even more likely to be inhaled. This is especially so since kids playing sports tend to breathe faster and more deeply.
Also, with no barrier between the rubber crumbs and the athletes, small rubber pieces get in eyes, hair and ears. Other pieces are tracked into homes, cars and elsewhere on players’ shoes and socks.
The crumb rubber is bad enough, but these artificial turf fields are maintained with additional toxins — disinfectants, flame-retardants and antimicrobials. A local high school student here says she gets sick every time she plays on plastic grass. Once, she actually fainted mid-game.
She may be more sensitive than most young people, but she could be considered the “canary in the coal mine.” That is, an early-warning system for others. We do know that children are uniquely vulnerable to exposure to neurotoxins, carcinogens and other toxins.
Serious injuries
Injuries from playing on synthetic turf have been well documented on the web site www.safehealthyplayingfields.org. These include blisters, turf burns, ligament tears and concussions. And in addition to being more numerous, wounds suffered on plastic grass are reported to require more recovery time.
The dangers of playing on artificial turf are so great that the NFL (National Football League) Players Association has called for stadiums to end its use. These are adults who can take care of themselves, but who will look out for our children?
Safety Claims Not Supported
Fortunately, neither the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency nor the Consumer Product Safety Commission still support safety claims for artificial turf fields or playground rubber mulch. They did at first, until research brought those claims into question.
However, the companies selling artificial turf still claim safety. Therefore, it’s up to parents and community members to educate themselves and their children’s school facility managers about the dangers. They can then press for natural grass on school sports fields.
How to take action
If this is an issue you’re concerned about and you’d like to do something about it, visit www.safehealthyplayingfields.org. There, local, state, and federal actions are listed and described – such as:
- educating yourself and your kids about the dangers
- pressing for informational signs to warn users
- contacting your elected representatives about the risks to kids
In Los Angeles, the SoCal Stop Artificial Turf Task Force (https://www.sfvclimatereality.org/artificial-turf) is actively working toward a city ban on artificial turf, and environmental organizations in Santa Clarita are working toward a similar ban. Several other cities in the U.S. have already banned plastic grass.
References
Safe Healthy Playing Fields, Inc. (https://www.safehealthyplayingfields.org/toxicity-carcinogens and https://www.safehealthyplayingfields.org/heat-levels-synthetic-turf and https://www.safehealthyplayingfields.org/injuries-and-player-preference)
Beyond Pesticides (https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2023/11/nfl-players-association-calls-for-stadiums-to-end-synthetic-turf-use/)
Cal Matters (https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/10/california-synthetic-turf-pfas/)
Route Fifty (https://route-fifty.com/infrastructure/2024/04/turf-wars-states-cities-grow-skeptical-artificial-grass/395533)
https://www.pexels.com/photo/girls-during-soccer-match-15955020/]
- Connecting with Nature: The Ancient Wisdom of Living in Harmony - January 30, 2026
- How Artificial Turf Compromises the Web of Life - December 7, 2025
- Plastic Grass: A Hazard for School Kids - August 8, 2025
