CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WOWK) — A significant number of high school athletes in our area compete on artificial turf fields, and there has been discussion regarding whether these surfaces contain elevated amounts of PFAS.
PFAS are more widely referred to as “forever chemicals.”
On Wednesday, the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission (WVSSAC) stated that a recent independentstudy released by FieldTurf, a supporter of the WVSSAC, indicated that there was minimal or no identifiable PFAS in the newly installed grass surfaces.
FieldTurf funded the research, which was conducted by the environmental consulting company Gradient, focusing on the synthetic grass fields at two high schools in Northern California.
Gradient analyzed the FieldTurf fields for 40 separate PFAS compounds both prior to and following their construction. One field was initially made of natural grass, while the other was an older synthetic surface constructed with SBR rubber. The new FieldTurf fields were put in place using natural infill materials such as cork, sand, and olive pits.
FieldTurf stated that “there were no measurable PFAS levels exceeding state and EPA soil screening thresholds. In one of the fields, no PFAS was found at all.”
The study reported that the natural grass field had elevated PFAS levels before it was replaced.
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