It's so hot in Toronto, Canada, currently that some amateur footballers say that the artificial turf they're playing on is melting the bottoms of their shoes and breaking down the glue that holds their athletic footwear together.


Hermann Kingue

CBC News quotes Hermann Kingue, who coaches at a girls' football camp. He told the news outlet, "I have no balance when I'm coaching or when I'm playing. All this black part is gone," he said, pointing to a chunk of black sole from his shoes that has disappeared.

Kingue sent photographs of his wrecked shoes to the manufacturer and was told they would fix them or provide him with a new pair but added that "he hasn't heard from them."

John Hyland, a technical director with the North Toronto Soccer League, said this summer has been "unreal," and there's no way the athletes can play on an artificial pitch before the sun starts going down.

"We're just not able to use it during the day, because it's just too hot," he said. "We started using everything after 6 o'clock in the hope that it's cooled down a bit."

Toronto Public Health investigated the health impacts of artificial turf fields and found they're hotter than asphalt in the sun.

A researcher measured one field at 95 C.

"I was not surprised it was hotter than natural grass but I did not anticipate it would necessarily be hotter than asphalt," said Ronald Macfarlane, manager of Healthy Public Policy.