Project Goals

Artificial Turf can contain chemicals like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. You can learn more about these chemicals here https://superfund.oregonstate.edu/resources/all-about-pahs. Over time, these chemicals can be released into the air. This means that turf could be an exposure source. We are looking at what chemicals are in the air with different types of turf. We will use passive samplers to do this. You can learn more about our passive samplers at https://fses.oregonstate.edu/PSDs. We will use this data to draw conclusions about how these chemicals move and about the risk they may pose. This research is based off of previous work our lab did in 2016. You can read the full findings of our previous work with artificial turf here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-019-00680-1.

Artificial Turf

Artificial turf is a common material used to cover football fields and other athletic fields. It uses a soft padding material covered by plastic grass instead of natural grass. Artificial turf can sometimes have an infill to further cushion the grass. This can be made of synthetic crumb rubber or natural cork pieces. The type of infill may impact what chemicals are moving around in the air from turf. You can be exposed to chemicals in the turf by touching it, swallowing it, or breathing in the air above it. We will place our samplers at two different heights to measure any chemicals from the turf.