New York City, meet FlexSand.
The newly-embraced artificial turf material, which relies on sand instead of crumb rubber to pad the synthetic grass so common in the city’s sports fields, is making its New York debut. Weeks after The Queens Courier reported on increased local opposition to the old crumb rubber infill that typically composes artificial sports surfaces, the city parks department has installed the new surface at two locations: Manhattan’s Thomas Jefferson Park in Harlem, and Queens’ Highland Park off Jamaica Avenue.
FlexSand, according to a statement by its producer, “combines the shock absorption of traditional infill and the ballast of raw sand, while minimizing health and environmental concerns.” The material combines two engineered elastic polymers with high-purity quartz sand. It is produced by a subsidiary of Ohio-based Fairmount Minerals.
The “health and environmental concerns” that FlexSand aims to eliminate were a source of considerable New York consternation in recent months, beginning when an artificial surface at Thomas Jefferson Park was found in December to contain elevated lead levels. The city closed down the park and announced that crumb rubber infill, the surface in question, would no longer be used in the construction of new artificial fields. Crumb rubber infill is derived from washed silica sand and a rubber product of processed automobile tires.
Despite the city’s decision to cease crumb rubber construction, health officials have always maintained that the material is safe, leaving city residents with a continuing barrage of mixed messages. Last August, the state health department issued a report insisting that “ingestion, dermal or inhalation exposures to chemicals in or released from crumb rubber do not pose a significant health concern.” Only the heat projected on particularly hot days, it said, might interfere with young athletes’ physical comfort.
From December to February, parks department tests of 111 athletic fields and play areas revealed that no additional turf surfaces contained unacceptable levels of lead. The Queens spaces with the highest levels of lead were Forest Park Fields 1, 4 and 5 (111 parts per million); Raymond O’Connor Park (87.7); and Juniper Valley Park (69.3). Anything over 400 PPM is considered hazardous.
Four weeks ago, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation released similar results. Its study announced that “lead concentrations in crumb rubber are well below federal hazard standards for lead in soil” and that “no significant threat [or] health concern” surrounds such materials’ contact with air and water.
City parks officials have consistently characterized the crumb rubber quarantine as simply a step to assuage public concerns.
Yet the public relations battle surrounding traditional crumb rubber producers – like industry leader FieldTurf Tarkett, which did not return a call seeking comment – is becoming increasingly uphill. Earlier this month, an outdated but newly-revealed internal memorandum from the federal Environmental Protection Agency stated that “there are valid reasons to take a broader perspective of all potential risks associated with crumb rubber.”
In recent weeks, the City of Los Angeles, too, has shifted its focus from FieldTurf to FlexSand. Having issued a similar quarantine, it just completed FlexSand installations at two of its parks. Justified or not, a synthetic switch appears to be taking form.
