i have recently received several letters from people who appear to be the makers
and or sellers of field turf.

i want to address a couple of their statements.

the first one: the statement made by field turf proponents that the installation of field turf reduces the use of pesticides. while that may be true IF pesticides are used on playing fields, in marin county and san francisco county they are not. pesticide use on school playing fields has been banned in those counties and many others also. so the pesticide issue is bogus.

2. the issue of watering the fields. this has some merit.
fake fields don't use any water. they don't hold any water either and therefore
increase the runoff from the fake fields into neighboring creeks, streams, culverts and city streets. that run-off water is running off of ground up tires that have been treated with numerous chemicals and running into those creeks carrying those very chemicals. the issue of overwatering also comes to mind. i can recall many times walking past school fields that are
being watered IN THE RAIN! all the sprinklers on full blast in the rain! and i can remember times when the sprinklers were on all weekend. that is a hardware/software issue. a well managed playing field can get by on 2 good soakings a month. furthermore, water sensors are available that will actually measure the moisture in the ground and control the amount of water that is used. much cheaper than astro turf. And natural playing fields provide employment for people.

3. the injury question. are they worse on field turf or better? the subtext of this question is ..injuries are inevitable in high school sports. some doctors have cited field turf as a possible culprit in the spread of msra-the anti-biotic resistant bacteria that is spreading like crazy in hospitals, schools, gyms, etc.

and here is one more issue- you won't like this one either. how about having
schools be about education! just education. and moving sports into a recreational arena so to speak. the students who are interested in sports could do all the track and high jump and soccer and football and basketball they want- after school in appropriate facilities paid for by the athletes. then schools could just be schools and athletes could be athletes. it seems to me that the sports budgets are bankrupting school districts and placing unnecessary parcel tax burdens on homeowners.

ok... i have more, but it will keep till another day.