Does artificial turf contain PFAS or lead? Is it safe for kids and pets?

What the Florida rule requires

Florida's Rule 62-308.100, effective May 19, 2026, sets the statewide floor for synthetic turf on single-family residential properties. Its materials provision — section (2)(a) — states that turf, including backing and infill, must not contain heavy metals or intentionally added PFAS.

That wording matters. The rule does not ask an installer to promise a product contains zero PFAS chemistry of any kind, at any detection limit, forever. It bans intentionally added PFAS — PFAS put into the product on purpose. That is the same line the industry has moved to: Synthetic Turf Council members committed in 2024 to eliminate intentionally added PFAS, and a standard practice for sampling and testing turf fiber and backing for PFAS (ASTM F3782-26) now exists, with sampling done at the factory because environmental background PFAS makes testing after install unreliable.

AJ Turf's installs are built around Florida's statewide synthetic turf standard (Rule 62-308.100) — including its materials provisions, the 10-foot waterbody setback, and its drainage requirements.

Lead: what the lab reports actually show

Lead is the older fear, and it belongs mostly to an earlier era of turf. Here is what the testing behind our product set found:

Test	Method	Result
Total lead content, turf fibers	ASTM F2765	Under 0.5 mg/kg on the tested landscape and pet products in the set
Acceptance level in those reports	—	Under 300 mg/kg — the tested fibers came in far below it
One putting product in the set	ASTM F2765	1.14 mg/kg — the highest reading in the set, still far below the acceptance level

The honest summary: on the products tested, lead in the fibers measured at trace levels a small fraction of the acceptance level. That is a statement about tested products and a named test method — it is the form any lead claim should take, from us or from anyone else.

PFAS: what is known, stated carefully

PFAS detections in turf, where researchers have found them, have been mainly in the blades — the suspected source is fluoropolymer processing aids used when the yarn is extruded — rather than in crumb rubber infill. (AJ Turf does not spec crumb rubber for homes in any case.)

For the product set behind this page, an independent content test screened the turf — fibers, backing, and coating — across a full list of PFAS/PFCA compounds. The conclusion was a pass, with every listed compound reported as not detected, at detection limits of 0.2 mg/kg for one compound family and 0.01 mg/kg for another.

Two limits on that fact, stated plainly. First, "not detected" means not found at those detection limits in that test — it is a test result, not a lifetime guarantee about every roll ever made. Second, a content test done to a client's requirements is not a certification, and we will not dress it up as one. If a seller uses certification language about PFAS, ask them to show you the certifying document.

So — kids and pets?

What we can stand behind is the compliance-and-testing picture above: products that meet Florida's materials rule, fiber lead measured at trace levels under a named test, and PFAS compounds not detected in content testing. What nobody can honestly sell you is absolute chemical certainty about any manufactured product, turf included.

The safety topic with the hardest numbers in Florida is actually heat, not chemistry. Turf in full Southwest Florida sun gets hot enough that bare feet and paws can be uncomfortable at midday. Shade, placement, a quick water rinse, and cooling infill options are real mitigations — see the related heat and pet pages — and any installer who waves off the heat question while making sweeping chemical-safety promises has the priorities backwards.

Blade wear also sheds tiny fiber particles over a product's life — the microplastics point critics raise most. Quality yarn sheds less, and infill and borders help contain fibers, but there is no good-faith answer that makes the point disappear, and we won't pretend otherwise.

Florida note

Florida is one of the first states to turn this from a marketing argument into a compliance fact pattern: the materials provision of Rule 62-308.100 applies to residential installs statewide, and the infill provision separately limits infill to clean silica sand, rock, shell, or other natural material outside playground-equipment footprints. That is one more reason the paperwork matters here — the spec sheets and test documentation for your exact product belong in your job file.

The honest downside The testing picture is genuinely incomplete. "Not detected" is bounded by detection limits and by which compounds were screened. PFAS findings in the wider industry have centered on blade materials, and research — including a multi-year California study of fields — has limits: that study found no significant health risks from crumb rubber infill exposure, but the blades were outside its scope. Anyone who tells you the science is fully settled, in either direction, is overselling what exists today.

The gotcha The bait on this topic runs both ways. One seller waves a vague safety claim with no test, no method, and no numbers behind it. Another quotes a scary headline about "turf" generally — often about old sports fields or crumb rubber — and applies it to a modern residential product it was never about. The question that cuts through both: "For the exact product on my quote — what was tested, by what method, and what did it measure?" Lead under ASTM F2765 and a PFAS content screen with stated detection limits are answers. Adjectives are not.

How AJ Turf handles this

We sell from documents, not adjectives. For the product on your quote, the job file carries its spec sheet and available test documentation — face weight and total weight, the lead result under ASTM F2765, and the PFAS content-screen result with its detection limits — and our installs are built around Florida's statewide synthetic turf standard (Rule 62-308.100). For pet and family yards we spec the system that manages the risks we can engineer: permeable, high-flow backings; ZeoFill (a zeolite mineral, 97% pure clinoptilolite) at 1.5 / 2 / 3–4 lb per square foot by dog load, or Envirofill by Motz (antimicrobial coated sand) at 1.5–2 lb per square foot; and for heat, TCool, a cooling infill that works by evaporation while hydrated, at ½–1 lb per square foot as its own layer. Most installs run $9–$15 per square foot, exact price only from the free onsite quote; 1,000 sq ft minimum, typically scheduled within about two weeks, 30/35/35 non-refundable payments. Turf carries the manufacturer's warranty for the product you choose (8, 16, or 25 years, UV stability and strength only, prorated, non-transferable), plus AJ Turf's 1-year labor warranty.