Health fears raised over 3G pitches in Holland
The Daily Telegraph are reporting that the world-renowned Ajax football academy in Amsterdam have advised the parents of boys attending the facility that their children will no longer be playing on the club’s 3G pitches with rubber crumb infill, and that those pitches were being removed.
It was a swift response to the findings of a documentary on the Dutch public broadcaster NPO which revealed serious shortcomings in the government-sponsored research in 2006 that had declared the rubber crumb to be safe, thus beginning a 3G boom.
From 300 3G pitches in Holland 10 years ago there are now more than 2,000 of them, in a country where artificial turf and the 120 metric tonnes of rubber crumb used on each one – equating to 20,000 shredded tyres – is big business.
The strongest allegation against rubber crumb is that carcinogens in the rubber could be responsible for cancer – with children the most vulnerable of all.
What of the UK? At the end of this month, Martin Glenn, the Football Association chief executive, and Tracy Crouch, the minister for sport, will open in Sheffield the first of the much heralded “hubs” of 3G pitches that will be built in around 30 towns and cities. The initiative was launched by former FA chairman Greg Dyke to increase grass roots participation – but how safe are those artificial grass roots?
In June, the English FA referred laboratory study results that it had commissioned into the specific rubber crumb to be used on the pitches built under the new hubs programme to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The FA is satisfied that its rubber crumb passes all safety requirements, the regulation of which is the responsibility of Defra and the HSE.
However, Fifa president Gianni Infantino has urged an investigation into the carcinogenic properties of rubber crumb and said that, on balance, he would rather Fifa invested the $4 billion set aside for football development over the next 10 years on natural surfaces.
One Dutch contractor, whose company lays 3G pitches, told journalists that there was a safer compound that could be used in place of the rubber crumb, an infill made from cork and the fibre of coconut shells. The problem was that it cost €15,000 more per pitch, which made it unpopular.
To view the Daily Telegraph article click HERE