Artificial turf is a synthetic surface that has replaced natural grass in many sports stadiums. It’s been around for decades and despite the controversy surrounding it, its use continues to grow.
But does artificial turf cause more injuries? In this blog post we’ll take a look at why artificial turf is not likely to cause more injuries compared to natural grass.
Important Note – In this post we’ll be considering only high quality turf that has been engineered for sports applications.
Lower quality turf may not come with the same benefits that have been mentioned below.
Does Artificial Turf Cause More Injuries?
Here are 5 reasons why artificial turf does not cause more injuries:
Shock Absorption
Artificial turf is installed on a top of a shock pad, which absorbs the impact of player collisions.
The shock pad is made of either rubber or polyethylene foam and is one inch thick. This helps reduce injuries caused by contact with the playing surface.
No Rocks or Dirt
Artificial turf does not have dirt or small rocks that can cause injury to players when they fall on them.
Turf also has little to no infill, so there are no hard objects underneath the turf to make falls more dangerous for players.
Lower Slipping Hazards
High quality artificial turf made for sports applications has a high coefficient of friction, which means it requires more force to slide across it than natural grass fields do.
So even if you slip and fall on artificial turf, you will not slide as far as you would on natural grass fields because it requires more force to move across the artificial turf surface than natural grass fields do.
Sports Turf is Engineered for Play
Artificial turf fields are designed specifically for football and soccer play and are tested in accordance with industry standards set by FIFA (the international governing body of soccer), NFHS (the national governing body of high school sports) and NCAA (the collegiate athletic association).
There are also strict guidelines that regulate how often an artificial turf field can be used per year in order to ensure its safety for use by athletes at all levels from youth leagues through professional sports organizations such as MLS teams like Real Salt Lake, New England Revolution and FC Dallas.
These regulations ensure that artificial turf fields will last longer than natural grass fields since they aren’t being overused every week during the season, which means that they cost less money over time because they don’t need to be replaced as often as natural grass fields do due to wear & tear from use by athletes year after year after year…and sometimes even multiple times per week!
In fact, many professional teams have switched from natural grass to artificial surfaces because their maintenance costs were higher than their budgets allowed for!
Made from Safe Materials
Finally, artificial turfs are made from materials that are safe for athletes who play on them every day during the season – they contain no lead or mercury or other harmful chemicals!
And while some people argue that there is lead in crumb rubber infill material used in some synthetic surfaces due to recycled tires containing trace amounts of lead in them when they were manufactured before laws were passed requiring tire manufacturers not add lead into their products anymore.
Something to note is that there is no lead in the surface of the turf itself!
So if your child plays on an artificial turf field, they are not being exposed to any harmful chemicals that could potentially cause them to get sick or develop health issues later in life.
So if you’re considering installing an artificial turf field for your child’s soccer team or for your own backyard, don’t believe the hype that artificial turf fields are more dangerous than natural grass fields.