Image: Erich Schlegel
Marissa Payne, The Washington Post, June 6, 2015
EXCERPTS FROM THE ARTICLE:
That’s almost unsafe to play on, according to a study cited by the Las Vegas Sun in 2009. The research, partly funded by the city of Las Vegas, found artificial turf above 122 degrees is considered unsafe for sustained athletic use and that, depending on the air temperature, turf can get as hot as 180 degrees.
“This was a temperature where if you put your hand down on it, you could only hold it for five seconds or so before it would burn,” Dale Devitt, director of the Center for Urban Water Conservation at the University of Nevada Las Vegas told the Sun.
Artificial turf has never been used in a men’s World Cup.