Moms, you have taken the safety of children to new levels but for some reason, artificial turf safety is not on your radar. No longer can a child ride a bike without being bubble wrapped. No longer can a kid freely play in their own yard without NSA approved video surveillance? And god forbid if a child needs to be driven two blocks without first donning a safety helmet and being strapped into a safety seat.
But for some reason the lack of artificial turf safety and the approval by parents to allow their children to roll around in other people’s bodily fluids is ok. This baffles me beyond belief. If a stranger or coworker cut themselves and bled all over the floor would you touch the blood, let alone roll around in it?
You Should Be Scared of Your Kids Playing Sports on Artificial Turf
Today I will inform, “SCARE”, your parents because sports facilities are failing to provide adequate artificial turf safety. Why all the scary words today? It’s simple; nobody seems to care that bodily fluids from unknown individuals can pose a serious and possibly deadly health issue. In the work environment, you have OSHA protecting workers from possible bio-hazard situations. Nurses and doctors in a hospital don’t wear masks, gloves, and gowns because they like the look. Ever watch a cop show? The moment a cop comes in contact with blood it’s an automatic 911 response to treating and disinfecting the cop.
There are policies and procedures in place to deal with blood for these professionals. These professionals are trained and realize the potential that a stranger’s blood might contain, HIV, Hepatitis, etc. Why then, do we not treat public facilities like artificial turf fields in the same manner when it comes to safety from bodily fluids and provides proper artificial turf safety?
I don’t hate artificial turf. I hate the fact that safety on artificial turf has been completely overlooked.
The fact that writing roughly 50 politically correct articles about the lack of artificial turf safety has resulted in very little progress in protecting kids. I hate the fact that the American public only considers something to be a real threat if it has been shown on TV or written about by a news organization. Imagine by the time television gets a hold of this, thousands of kids will have been exposed to MRSA, Staph, HIV and many more harmful microorganisms. Guess what folks? Sometimes connecting the dots to a real problem is as simple as a little observation.
Let Me Connect The Dots For You: Your Kid Can Get MRSA and Staph!
The picture of Sydney Leroux’s legs was taken by her and posted to her Twitter account. She is showing her wounds in protest to FIFA’s decision to play the World Cup on artificial turf.
So here are the dots. Artificial turf is a surface on which contact sports are played. Football, soccer, rugby, and lacrosse for example. Contact sports create cuts and abrasions. Artificial turf is a surface that is abrasive and also creates cuts and abrasions. When an athlete has cuts and abrasions, this puts the athlete at risk for contracting Staph and MRSA infections.
You might be healthy as can be but come in contact with a surface that has someone else’s contaminated bodily fluids and then you suddenly have trouble. It’s not just blood on the artificial turf, it is every imaginable bodily fluid you can think of.
Who Would Artificial Turf Safety Benefit?
Who is actually playing on the artificial turf and leaving bodily fluids behind? Everyone, you don’t know! Artificial turf is replacing natural turf at an amazing rate. One reason why natural turf is getting replaced is that the entire community can use the artificial field. These fields are being used 7 days a week, from sunup to sundown, and even after that with lights. You have little kids using the field and you have adult recreational leagues also using the turf. So who is cleaning up the bodily fluids on the surface? Who is monitoring the players for health issues? No one!
Remember natural grass? Natural grass gets watered and gets mowed, presto cleaned. Artificial turf gets nothing because as the turf manufacturers claim, it’s “maintenance free” as a tactic to increase sales. It is my belief that anything negative associated with artificial turf will raise red flags and will slow the giant sales machine. I have debated with artificial turf manufacturers in the past about Staph and MRSA as it relates to artificial turf.
Artificial Turf Manufacturers Are Acting Like Big Tobacco-Profit Over The Safety Of Athletes
My data comes from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta. With that, add just a bit of common sense, and the big picture of what is happening with artificial turf is scary. If you allow your child to participate in sports on artificial turf, then you are putting their lives in danger. If you allow your child to play sports at indoor facilities that use artificial turf, there is likely twice the danger. Indoor facilities have zero ability to rid the playing surface of bodily fluids. I have said it before and I will say it again, indoor facilities are a Giant Petri Dish of Bodily Fluids.
So who needs to do something? Parents! Parents need to be informed of the issues and parents need to ask sports facilities the tough question: “How are you protecting my child?”
