Artificial turf rolls that were found in the Saratoga High School parking lot in the summer of 2023:
Photo courtesy of Pam Bond
By Nicole Lee, class of 2025 at Saratoga High School
Imagine you’re running through a green grass field. Now imagine that instead of grass touching your feet and brushing against your ankles, it’s plastic. This is the reality that my classmates and I faced at Saratoga High School. In our school campus, we have three grass fields, all used for athletic purposes. Each one of these grass fields is made of plastic and filled with plastic and rubber crumbs.
As a former member of my school’s color guard, I used to run on the field during practices at least three times a week for around fourteen hours in total per week — not including the extra time spent during the weeks leading up to major performances. During these practices, we typically warmed up in classrooms for around an hour before heading to one of our three turf fields, where we executed our practices through exercises such as running and dancing across the field. Not only was the field always uncomfortable to move on, but remnants of it would also consistently appear in my shoes and clothes — and it would continue to do so even weeks after the last practice had ended.
Artificial turf is harmful for a number of reasons. Not only is it uncomfortable to walk on, but it also contains toxic polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) known as forever chemicals for their inability to decompose naturally — or for that matter, decompose at all. These PFAS often drain into waterways, polluting the water. It has also been linked to a greatly increased chance for cancer, increases injury rates for athletes (dirt has been shown to be much softer to the body than artificial turf), and exacerbates a heat problem due to the “heat island” effect (according to Safe and Healthy Playing Fields, artificial grass increases temperatures near the turf by as much as 40-70º as opposed to real grass). Furthermore, natural grass just costs less. A study done by Cornell states that “Synthetic infill fields are very costly to install and maintain in comparison to a native soil field.” Not only does artificial turf take money to maintain, it also needs to be replaced every few years, which costs much more than natural grass which basically never has to be reinstalled after its first installation if it is well maintained.
Currently, I am working with two other rising juniors of Saratoga High School: Aiden Chen and Neha Tadikamalla. In our campaign to try to get our school to replace their artificial turf fields with real grass, we have attended and made public comments at the Los Gatos-Saratoga School Board meetings; sent letters to the board, administration, city council members, and PTA; written an article — in addition to this one — about the dangers of artificial turf and our efforts to stop it; and are currently trying to expand our efforts to help the city of Saratoga pass an ordinance banning the use of artificial turf on public property.
A growing number of cities — such as Boston — have already banned artificial turf because of the public health risks and its detrimental environmental effects. In the Bay Area, Millbrae just banned it on October 2023, a month after a new law was passed that restored the power of local governments to ban artificial turf, overturning an industry-sponsored legislation that stripped cities of this authority.
We hope that by replacing the artificial turf on the school fields, we will be able to create a healthier and safer environment for the students at Saratoga High School. We hope that by replacing the artificial turf on the school fields, we will also be able to set an example for other schools that can follow our leads and open the way for more environmentally friendly changes to our environment in schools and neighborhoods. Finally, we hope that government officials at all levels will take stronger action against the serious public health and environmental threats that artificial turf poses.
If you would like to support our campaign, please contact Nicole Lee.