Smart Safety: With Concussion Awareness on the Rise, Parents Should Consider the Impact of Turf

During the NFL season concussions are always a topic of conversation and concern. As stories of professional players in concussion protocol fill the headlines, parents with children who enjoy playing any and all contact sports are left to weigh the pros and cons of allowing their child to participate.

Founder and CEO of GreenPlay Organics, Domenic Carapella, believes in the positives of youth sports and says that inadequate playing surfaces are partly to blame for concussions in football and other sports played. Most turf systems use rubber infill, which does not offer the same safety benefits of the pristine turfgrass preferred by the professionals. Carapella says that synthetic turf applications that utilize a natural artificial turf infill would offer many of the same benefits.

The Concussion Legacy Foundation determined that 1 out of 5 concussions come as a result of a player’s head impacting the surface. Carapella explains that the Corkonutblended natural infill he developed and has sold for over a decade remains more stable with better shock absorption, and with the addition of a shock pad, can dramatically reduce the incidences of concussions from contact with the field.

“Pristine turfgrass is the benchmark for the safest, high-performing playing surface. However, when tested, synthetic turf applications with Greenplay organic infill performed similar to pristine natural turfgrass,” said Carapella.

Carapella continued, “It’s my goal to have GreenPlay organic infill installed at high schools and colleges across the country in order to offer players the safest playing surface on the market today.”

While advancements in helmets and other equipment have been popularly publicized, improving the safety of the playing surface may be just as important.

According to Carapella:

• Traditionally, pristine turfgrass has shown to produce exceptional results under impact tests to assess head injury risks.
• Combining organic infill with a pad will enhance synthetic turf to provide even more consistency than turfgrass.
• Synthetic turf coupled with organic, all-natural turf infill is an excellent alternative for all sports applications in collegiate, municipal and high school fields as well as playgrounds.
• Organic infill has proven to be the best artificial turf infill to provide turf temperatures consistent with natural grass. Too often most artificial turf fields are too hot from the sun, causing fatigue and other health issues.