Results

Field Samples

The results of total microbial populations are shown in Table 1. While microbes exist in the infill media the number was low compared to natural turfgrass field soils. It should be remembered that microbes tend to be present on most surfaces humans come in contact with and the simple presence of microbes should not be cause for concern. In fact, many products on the market claim to boost the microbial populations of natural turfgrass soils with higher microbial populations considered to be beneficial.

Pile fiber samples were also collected from several fields. CFUs for fiber samples range from 200-2933 CFUs per fiber sample (2 fibers approximately 1 cm long) indicating that the fibers alone generally exhibited lower microbial populations compared to the infill.

Microbial colonies isolated from field samples generally included both fungi and bacteria. Some fields had predominantly one organism type while other fields contained a variety of organisms. In order to positively identify the presence of S. aureus, three procedures were used. No colonies isolated from any crumb rubber or fiber samples tested positive for S. aureus via selective media, gram stain or latex agglutination tests.

Other Surfaces

Surfaces other than athletic playing surfaces were tested for the presence of microbes and S. aureus. These surfaces are not granulated and thus the results are listed in Table 2 as total colony number as opposed to CFU per gram of granulated material.

Microbial colonies isolated from surfaces included a mixture of fungi and bacteria. Colonies from the trash can were predominantly fungi. While not specifically identified, all colonies from the sauna swab appeared to be the same. S. aureus was positively identified from several samples including towels, blocking pads, weight equipment, and the stretching table. In addition, S. aureus was positively identified from every facial and hand swabs tested.