http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93364750
The industry has offered up a couple of options, including a sand-based fill. The Synthetic Turf Council says one company, Mondo, advertises that its Ecofill is “up to 50 percent cooler.” And another company that markets a product called “Cool Grass” synthetic yarn says it can reduce surface temperatures on synthetic turf by up to 35 percent.
“Technology is evolving all of the time,” says the council’s Doyle. Yet many of these new products can be quite a bit more expensive.
Kavanaugh says he’s hopeful one will work since, overall, the city likes the low-maintenance artificial turf.
But Columbia University researcher Gaffin says he’s skeptical. He says even without any black rubber added, the plastic blades of grass in synthetic turf trap a lot of heat.
“They’re spongy and lightweight — and that means the solar energy that’s absorbed quickly gets converted to high temperatures,” he says.
Without the natural system of evaporation that living grasses have, everything’s working in one direction to turn sunlit turf fields into heat islands, he says.
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