“And the field takes another victim!”
For my soccer teammates and me, this joke has become all too colloquial at every home game. But as we waited two months for Whitman’s new turf field to open last fall, did we expect to be cracking that joke multiple times per game? Definitely not.
The turf field was supposed to be state-of-the-art, made with a different material than older turf fields with “cancerous” black pellets at schools like Walter Johnson and Wootton. Whitman isn’t the only school that has this type of turf field; B–CC, Wheaton, Richard Montgomery and Einstein all have relatively similar surfaces...
...MCPS officials recently tested Whitman’s turf field and found that its surface is outside the FIFA range for the degree of friction and “too smooth” for FIFA standards — leading to athletes slipping, sometimes resulting in injuries. FIFA is the international organization that makes rules for soccer, whether for the World Cup final or a youth soccer game. I understand the “smooth” standards may be different for soccer than for other sports that play on the turf field, but I also know that other athletes still slip and fall on the surface of the field too.
Also, when it’s hot and humid outside, dust from the sand in the turf rises in the air. There’s a potentially toxic chemical called silica in the infill of the field, which rises from the turf surface. Symptoms of silica poisoning include shortness of breath, coughing and rapid breathing...
