Health Impacts

HEAT ON FIELDS

The attitude in this memo is, "let's try it and find out," despite the fact that installing artificial turf is a very long-term commitment that can't be undone when the test returns undesirable results. Waiting for a study in Seattle to determine whether a plastic field using cork and sand as infill is cooler than black rubber crumb infill is asinine. Go outside with a thermometer and find out for yourself. My friend did on March __. It was a 79 degree day. Grass was 78 degrees. Pavement was 90 degrees and an artificial turf athletic field with cork/sand infill was 120 degrees.

The Recreation and Parks Department does not close athletic fields for public safety when they are dangerously hot to young athletes. They don't even post warnings. The department won't change. The existing fields are a menace to public health and any future fields will be, too.

CONCUSSION & BROKEN BONE RISK

G-max and HIC Testing
Shock-absorbing characteristics of artificial grass fields must be carefully maintained for preventing impact injuries. Tests were developed by the car industry with crash test dummies to determine the magnitude of force the human body (in particular, the head) could withstand before serious injury would occur. The Synthetic Turf Council recommends testing fields annually. The unit of measurement for the force of an impact is G-max. A “Head Injury Criteria” (HIC) estimates the risk of a brain injury. The test results provided by the Recreation and Parks Department in response to public records requests for all tests show that fields are not being tested. Franklin Square, Garfield Square, Mission Recreation Center, Silver Terrace and Youngblood Coleman have each only been tested once, 15 years ago, and all five failed the safety tests. Athletes falling on any of those fields faced an unacceptable risk of broken bones and concussions. We don't know whether Rec & Park repaired those fields because no other test results were provided. South Sunset fields were tested in 2012 and 2013. They failed the safety tests in 2013 and no other tests results have been provided. The soccer fields at Crocker Amazon have been tested 5 times. They failed the tests in 2017 and 2022. The fields at Beach Chalet, Margaret Hayward Playground and Minnie & Lovie Ward have not been tested.

These tests must be performed because artificial turf fields are inherently unsafe. Rec Park is not maintaining these fields to a safe level and should not be trusted to do so. Artificial turf installations in San Francisco must be halted, and fields should be returned to organically managed, well-maintained natural grass.

Failed Tests
2011 Franklin Square Gmax Report
2011 Garfield Square Gmax Report
2011 Mission Recreation Center Gmax Report
2011 Silver Terrace Gmax Report
2011 Youngblood Coleman Gmax Report
2013 South Sunset Gmax Report
2017 Crocker Amazon Gmax Report
2022 Crocker Amazon Gmax Report