Recent news shining light on the harmful effects of crumb rubber infill has us at Bella Turf proud to offer 100% lead free products. In numerous studies, it’s safe to say that the artificial grass tested is lead and heavy metal free. The recycled rubber infill that you find in sports fields however may NOT be.
The popular crumb rubber you see in sports fields is made from recycled tires and is among the least expensive of infills. When these tires come from North America, we can assume that they do not contain harmful levels of lead. Unfortunately, some crumb rubber used today is made from recycled tires that were manufactured in other parts of the world. These foreign tires sometimes may have unsafe levels of lead and heavy metals.
With this in mind, none of us want our children, or ourselves, playing or spending time on surfaces that have increase lead exposure, well above levels found in our everyday environments.
Some of the benefits of choosing artificial grass over natural grass include NOT using toxic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, reducing overall water usage, retiring your lawnmower and significantly cutting your chore list down.
Although these benefits are attractive to most of us, many Canadians still have concerns over the safety of artificial grass in their homes. In speculation, some people are still uncertain whether or not artificial grass has unsafe levels of lead.
With information coming from both sides of the spectrum and the media generalizing all artificial grass into the same category, we understand that there’s some confusion on this topic. First off, lead exposure is connected to a variety of health concerns and symptoms. Therefore, we take this matter quite seriously.
Similar issues have arisen within the artificial grass industry across the border, California being the epicentre of it all. Numerous studies have been done and the results have us, the artificial grass brands holding our heads high.
“In July 2008, a U.S. Product Safety Commission staff report concluded that synthetic turf fields are OK to install and play on for people of all ages. The evaluation of older and newer synthetic turf fields concluded that young children are not at risk from exposure to lead in these fields. The report showed that newer fields had no lead or generally had the lowest lead levels. Although small amounts of lead were detected on the surface of some older fields, none of the tested field released amounts of lead that would be harmful to children.” – U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, July 2008, “CPSC Staff Finds Synthetic Turf Fields OK to Install, OK to Play On.”
The artificial grass is NOT the issue, we simply need to steer clear of crumb rubber and lean more towards a safer, more natural choice of infill. Bella Turf is proud to offer a selection of turf infills that are safe for you, your family and your pets, including PureZEO Pro; an all-natural zeolite that is mined in Canada.
All Bella Turf products contain no detectable traces of lead and heavy metals. Furthermore, we do not sell or use crumb rubber products and infills.
To learn more about our products and to find the ideal artificial grass system for your home, visit our Learning Centre on our website: bellaturf.ca
