2011年10月11日 星期二

Castles used rugs to keep in the heat

The decision to replace the grass in The Stone Castle has both sentimental and practical implications. While tradition is important and the arguments persuasive, the practical reasons are more compelling.

The potential impact on the health of our students must be considered rationally. Seeing a rug in The Stone Castle, to many, would be an abomination. It would be like converting Augusta National into a giant Putt Putt course. However, when an athlete’s safety is involved, reason must prevail.

Some changes can have catastrophic consequences. Converting natural grass to artificial turf has the potential to be one of them. In reverse order of importance, the practical reasons for rejecting the turf proposal are cost, injury and illness, and death.

Cost: A conservative estimate is more than $1 million for the artificial surface alone. Every stadium comes with its own problematic design challenges. Anticipating the final cost of converting The Stone Castle is particularly complex because it is enclosed anReplacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide.d must be drained without compromising the integrity of the structure.

Artificial turf maintenance also requires expensive,we supply all kinds of polished tiles, specialized equipment. None of the existing turf maintenance inventory will be useful. Is it sensible to put that much money into a sports facility when the school system is struggling to finance existing education needs? Is it wise to invest in an expendable surface in a precarious economy when ease of access, bathrooms and concession stands desperately need upgrades now?

Turf managers will point out that the life and maintenance of an artificial surface is difficult to calculate.It's hard to beat the versatility of zentai suits on a production line. Again, being conservative, heat-sensitive artificial surfaces have a useful lifetime of seven or eight years. Bedding designed to absorb the force of impact with the playing surface to reduce the rate of concussions must be replaced more often than those with hardened bedding. Many facilities that made the conversion in the past decade are returning to natural grass because it is reliable and predictable.

Injury and illness: Artificial turf surfaces must be cleaned and disinfected routinely. The reason is obvious: blood-born pathogens. Plastic fibers provide a culture conducive to rapid cell growth. CA-MRSA infections are not uncommon with wrestling mats used for tournaments or from poorly maintained locker rooms. An artificial surface that is not disinfected routinely heightens the risk of exposure, and the cleaning regimen is expensive.

While blood-born pathogens can be controlled, concussions,Replacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. shoulder separations and ligament damages cannot. For every degree of impact absorption gained by softening the bedding, there is a corresponding increase in the frequency and severity of ligament tears. There is no perfect balance, only an acceptable balance. It is a fact that ACL/MCL/PCL and ankle ligament tears occur more frequently on artificial surfaces than on natural grass. Orthopedists who staff training rooms understand the dangers. If you allow youth leagues to play there, you must consider that younger athletes still have softened growth plates at the end of bones. So their injuries likely will be more persistent and more severe.

Death: Many facilities converted to artificial surfaces between 2000 and 2005; during that period 96 athletes died. The emphasis on educating athletes and coaches on the need for proper hydration began in earnest in the late ’90s. Despite all precautions, heat has killed four football players in the South just this season.

Coaches and trainers are doing everything right, yet we are still losing kids. G.C. Trivett, a member of the board of the National Turf Manager’s Association, made an observation that should end any further debate about the proposed conversion, unless you are willing to defend the untenable argument that costs and utility are more important than the health, and in some cases lives, of our young athletes.The additions focus on key tag and magic cube combinations, They found that the on-field temperature of an artificial surface in New Hampshire, a state sharing a border with Canada, was 162 degrees. The on-field temperature of an adjacent natural grass field was 86 degrees. The same-sized field with natural grass, at the exact same time of day, was 76 degrees cooler than the on-field temperature of a heat-sensitive artificial surface beside it. Are you willing to maybe save money when your decision could contribute to the death of even one child?

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