This article discusses the risk of staph infection and MRSA from synthetic turf, concluding that regular treatment for bacteria must be part of the maintenance cost. Click here.
"...Not only must sports field managers learn how to maintain synthetic turf that often receive 5-10 times more activity than turfgrass fields, they're also charged with making the decision or asked their opinion of whether or not to treat synthetic fields with a product to kill bacteria.
Providing safe conditions for the athletes that use their facilities is their number one responsibility, after all.
This has been a tough call for them in light of budget pressures and exaggerated expectations of maintenance cost savings associated with synthetic turf fields.Adding to the difficulty of deciding whether or not to treat is uncertainty about the relative risk of contracting a staph infection (including the more serious MSRA) on synthetic fields.
Even so, increasing numbers of professional teams and universities, in particular, have decided that the risk, whatever it is, is too great to ignore. In almost all cases, they treat all the surfaces that athletes come in contact with — both inside and outside as staph can be carried from one surface to another.
These high-profile and well-funded programs generally contract a professional service that applies a product specifically formulated to kill bacteria."
