New artificial turf is safe — and makes sense, too

The new turf being installed at what, for now, is being called the East Washington Park sports complex, is not your father’s (or at least your older brother’s) artificial turf. And it makes both cents and sense.

The controversy over artificial turf vs. natural grass continues to flare up almost every time a new field is installed. It is happening now in West County, where new fields are planned for both Analy and El Molino high schools, and there are some people who don’t like the idea at all. Some fussing is certain to pop up again later this year when the Petaluma City Schools move forward with plans to re-do fields at Petaluma and Casa Grande high schools.

Personally, I prefer natural grass. It looks real, feels real and smells real. Maybe that is because it is real.

But I understand the advantages of artificial turf. It is playable in all kinds of weather. A big tip of the helmet goes to the school district grounds crews who work very hard to keep the fields at Petaluma and Casa Grande playable, but we can all remember back into ancient history when it actually rained in Petaluma. During those historic times, fields on both sides of town went quickly from mud to muck to quagmire.

It wasn’t that many years ago that there was a small dust-up between high school and youth football officials over the younger players sliding and playing in the mud following a game at what was then still Durst Field when the high school still had games to play on the field.

Way back when I had hair, a helicopter was brought in to try to dry Durst Field before a championship game between Petaluma and Napa. It monsooned during the game, making the helicopter relevant only as a photo op.

The point is that artificial turf is much more weather-friendly than natural grass.

It also requires far less maintenance. I’m sure it takes more than I’m aware of to take care of artificial turf, but it never needs mowing, seldom needs re-striping and today’s version is surprisingly durable.

Of course, the big advantage of the fake stuff is that it never needs water. This can quickly become a huge savings. In our continuing drought, the natural turf field you water could be the fish you kill.

All those arguments for artificial turf would be mute if it does indeed pose a danger to those who play on its surface. The perceived dangers of artificial turf were highlighted this past summer when a Casa Grande football player was diagnosed with a staph infection after scraping an elbow while attending a camp at UC Berkeley.

Staph infection is bad stuff. I’ve got a friend who has had three operations since Christmas to clear out infected areas. The Casa Grande player was seriously ill and unable to play football all season. The good news is that he has now fully recovered.

But as former Argus-Courier staffer Elizabeth Cosin pointed out in a well-researched story printed last November, it isn’t the turf that causes the infection. The infection is caused by bacteria that can enter the blood stream through any open wound or scrape. That is where the turf comes into play. A scrape or abrasion that opens the skin makes a person vulnerable to the bacteria. We still call a scrape or abrasion caused by turf “rug burn.”

When I worked on the Oregon coast, I attended several high school and college football games at the University of Oregon’s Autzen Stadium, where I first encountered the then unique field covering. It was not good. Players wore knee and shoulder pads and still often came away looking like freshly peeled potatoes.

Times have changed.

The turf used on today’s fields - including those at St. Vincent High School and Lucchesi Park - are pretty benign. I’m no field technician, but I know the fields are soft, non-abrasive and generally player friendly.

Can an athlete still get rug burn and can that scrape lead to an infection? It happens, but so do sprains, breaks, concussions and other assorted hurts. It just isn’t very likely, and the advantages of artificial turf over natural grass for fields that get a lot of use are great.

It just doesn’t smell the same.

(Contact John Jackson at johnie.jackson@arguscourier.com)