WAYNE, Pa., March 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Sprinturf, the leading American
synthetic turf manufacturer, announced today that it will severely restrict
the use of sand as infill for its sports fields because of the mounting
evidence that sand harbors infestations of Staph and other harmful germs.
This past year, Staph infections were all too common for high school and
college athletes.  In the NFL, Staph reached near epidemic proportions with
two thirds of the teams fighting off this infection -- sidelining many players
and coaches. Unfortunately, even deaths have occurred from Staph including
Jack Snow, the Rams announcer and former All-Pro receiver, who died on January
9 of this year.
    The seriousness of this problem was highlighted recently on HBO's Real
Sports with Bryant Gumbel. "High-profile cases, including Junior Seau of the
Miami Dolphins, as well as the death of a college football player in
Pennsylvania, have done little to increase public awareness, which is
alarming, given that the CDC had to be summoned to examine one NFL team's
outbreak ... ," HBO concluded.
    Due to their concerns, Sprinturf recently hired an independent testing lab
to examine a number of fields, including their leading competitor's -- some
using all-rubber infill and others using infill with sand.  "Quite frankly, we
were stunned by the results," said Hank Julicher, CEO of Sprinturf.  "The
infill containing sand had 50,000 times the bacterial count that all-rubber
did!  We were blown away by the data and knew we had to take immediate
action."
    "The fact that sand infill has been identified as posing serious health
issues does not mean that synthetic surfaces can't be played on safely,"
Julicher continued.  "Quite to the contrary. Sprinturf has installed all-
rubber fields for pro teams such as the Philadelphia Eagles, and college teams
like Auburn University and Ohio State as well as hundreds of high school and
municipal fields across the U.S."
    "Our teams have played on dozens of fields and the all-rubber surface is
by far preferred by our coaches and players, anyway.  The fact that all-rubber
is also safer is an added bonus," said Andy Talley, Head Football Coach of
Villanova University.
    "The newer, crambient, all-rubber systems are perfectly stable and simply
don't need any sand," said Steve Peeler, consultant and MLB head
groundskeeper. "They perform equal to, if not better than, infill systems
using sand.  Why introduce sand if you don't have to -- especially now that
some health risks have been identified."
    All-rubber infill systems are also recognized by FIFA, the worldwide
governing body of soccer standards.  FIFA has certified all-rubber fields,
affirming that this design performs at as high a level as any other system in
the world.
    As a result of the mounting and compelling evidence, Sprinturf made the
decision to contact all their clients where the infill mix included sand and
offer them a free, lifetime decontamination service.  "We will need to
sanitize a field about 12 times a year but we owe it to our customers and the
kids that play on the surface to have it completely safe. We would strongly
encourage others in the industry to do the right thing and follow our lead,"
Julicher concluded.
    Sprinturf plans to formally announce their new line of synthetic surfaces
called SandFree(TM), which will be available for installation later this year.

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