extreme heat Archives

August 20, 2024

As the world heats up, so does the debate around artificial turf

By Carmela Guaglianone

Artificial turf carpets athletic fields, playgrounds, and residential lawns across the US, offering a low-maintenance alternative to natural grass that always looks lush and doesn’t require heavy watering. But while this popular synthetic material is marketed as eco-friendly, it has also long attracted controversy – for decades, environmental and health advocates have expressed concern about the chemical byproducts of the turf’s plastic fibers.

Now, as climate change drives global temperatures to searing new records and cities scramble for ways to cool down, the old debate around artificial turf has taken on a new intensity. Along with concerns about toxic chemicals, some have begun to sound the alarm that artificial turf simply gets too hot in a world of ever-harsher heatwaves, exacerbating the health risks of the climate crisis.

Medical experts, like those at the Mount Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center, have begun to recommend against artificial turf installations, often citing several health concerns — including “a very real risk of burns, dehydration, heat stress, or heat stroke.”

And the safety risks of hot turf go beyond the immediate, said Genoa Warner, an environmental toxicologist at the New Jersey Institute of Technology who has researched artificial turf and other plastics.

“You might have heard like not to microwave your plastics, not to leave your plastic water bottle in the car to heat up and be exposed to the sun because it’s more likely to leach chemicals into it,” she said. “It’s basically the same principle as applying with artificial turf.”

In part due to concerns that artificial turf is only adding to Los Angeles’ heat struggles, city councilmembers this spring proposed that the city begin to transition away from artificial installations, joining a growing list of cities around the country that have taken steps to ban the material.

In late June, the council’s Energy and Environment Committee approved the motion, which seeks to gather information on the impacts of turf and could ultimately lead to a ban.

July 3, 2024

Proposed rule could protect 36 million workers from hazardous heat

By Shannon Kelleher

As dangerous heat waves sweep the US, the Biden administration this week announced a first-of-its-kind proposed rule that could help protect about 36 million workers from heat-related deaths and injuries.

If finalized, the safety standard, proposed July 2 by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), would require employers to develop plans to address workplace heat hazards and to put in place requirements for rest breaks and access to shade and drinking water.

The announcement came as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a new report on the impacts of climate change on health and the environment in the US, revealing that almost 1,000 workers died from heat exposure between 1992 and 2022, about one-third of which were construction workers. The report also found that the average number of heat waves increased from two per year in the 1960s to six per year in the 2010s and 2020s.

“Workers all over the country are passing out, suffering heat stroke and dying from heat exposure from just doing their jobs, and something must be done to protect them,” Doug Parker, Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, said in a press release. The proposal marks “an important next step in the process to receive public input to craft a ‘win-win’ final rule that protects workers while being practical and workable for employers,” said Parker.