Holland's growing 3G pitch battle a warning for the FA

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The Daily Telegraph (London)

December 1, 2016 Thursday Edition 2; National Edition

SPORT;NEWS; Pg. 12

1014 words

Holland's growing 3G pitch battle a warning for the FA; Vitesse Arnhem are latest club to act because of health fears concerning rubbercrumb surfaces

SAM WALLACE

The latest club in Holland to take precautionary measures against rubber crumb on 3G pitches are Vitesse Arnhem, that nurturing ground for Chelsea's most promising loan talent and a football club with one of the best modern training facilities in the Dutch game.   Vitesse announced on Monday that they were closing one of their two artificial pitches - the other one being a surface that uses a cork composite inlay rather than those sticky rubber pellets that will be familiar to five-a-side devotees and parents of junior footballers.   Vitesse now await a report by the Dutch institute for public health and environment (RIVM) into the dangers or otherwise of rubber crumb.   It is a subject that this column has discussed on more than one occasion, and in a month when we are looking anew at the safeguarding of children in football, there is no harm in casting an eye back over an awkward problem for the game that will not go away.   How safe is the rubber-crumb inlay made from recycled tyres that is used on 3G pitches, with the equivalent of 20,000 shredded tyres spread on every single pitch? In Holland, where the number of 3G pitches has multiplied from 300 to 2,000 over the past 10 years, it has been a subject of some debate since a documentary by the Zembla current affairs programme in October cast serious doubt upon the research that first passed rubber crumb as safe.   As a consequence Ajax took their pitches at their De Toekomst academy out of use and Vitesse, who have the England Under-21 and Chelsea midfielder Lewis Baker on loan there, have now followed suit.   Vitesse based their decision on a study by the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant that cited experts saying that the rubber crumb has been wrongly classified by the European Chemical Agency (ECHA), the industry regulator, which has made it subject to disproportionately weak guidelines.   The Zembla documentary prompted the Dutch health minister, Edith Schippers, to launch an inquiry into the safety of rubber-crumb pitches. In the meantime, the Dutch industry body representing tyre manufactures, Vaco, conducted its own tests, which were completed this month and presented as evidence that the rubber crumb in use was safe.   The Dutch national broadcaster, NOS, asked for a full summary of those results and took them to Martin van den Berg, a professor of toxicology at Utrecht university who had given evidence to the original Zembla documentary. NOS's report pointed out that, while the Vaco results satisfied the criteria to which rubber crumb is subject, they did not meet the standards set by ECHA for consumer products.   The concerning element of rubber crumb is the Polycyclicaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are believed to have carcinogenic properties and could potentially be a cause of cancer, with children the most vulnerable.   In Holland rubber crumb was classified as a "chemical mixture" and therefore not liable to meet ECHA standards on consumer products, which have a much higher threshold.   For products classified as mixtures, the ECHA-set limit is 1,000 milligrams of PAHs per kilogram. For consumer products, that drops to 1 mg per kilo. For toys, the limit is 0.5 mg per kilo. Of the 50 3G pitches surveyed and passed as safe by Vaco, the NOS inquiry noted that none would pass the ECHA's test for PAHs on consumer products.   In the UK, the responsibility for testing of rubber crumb falls to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and it is to them that the Football Association has deferred in its own expansionist programme of laying 3G rubber-crumb pitches. The FA has said it is in no doubt that its new £200 million 3G pitch joint initiative with the Premier League and government, which has already launched at the Sheffield Graves facility last month, complies with Defra regulations.   Yet it is hard to ignore the fact that while one country is cordoning off its 3G rubbercrumb pitches pending an investigation, another is embarking on a major programme of installation. Defra, in conjunction with the Health and Safety executive, is responsible for the monitoring of safe levels of PAHs in rubber crumb in 3G pitches.   Given that rubber crumb is a recycled product, there remain concerns about the consistency of its quality, especially given that so much is needed and, at certain times, 3G pitches require topping up with the material.   Curiously, the other major use of recycled rubber tyres, the playground tiles that provide a soft landing around climbing and play equipment, are rated in Holland according to the ECHA's consumer classification. That is on account of the skin contact likely to occur with children, yet there is a strong argument for saying that children and adults playing football on 3G pitches are likely to have much more skin contact with the rubbercrumb infill.   It has been De Volkskrant's subsequent collating of independent tests into what it said was 30 to 40 pitches which did not meet the consumer guidelines on PAHs that has caused Vitesse to reassess the use of their rubber-crumb surface.   There have been reports that Amsterdamsche FC, a big amateur club in Amsterdam, have commissioned tests on their own 3G rubber-crumb pitches. Last night it emerged that the city of Amsterdam government had decided it did not want rubbercrumb pitches any longer, having previously been a major advocate of the 3G surface.   The difficulty in this instance is that RIVM is unlikely to offer a clear answer on the subject. At the moment the RIVM guidance is that after playing on 3G pitches with rubber-crumb infill, children and adults are advised to shower and change clothes.   Parents are advised not to allow children to play directly with the very tactile rubber crumb as they might, for instance, play with sand.   It has not been the most reassuring week in Holland, and the questions there will not go away. The Dutch football community seem to have lost faith in the regulators of rubber crumb for 3G pitches, which is a fate that the English FA will wish to avoid.   Dutch parents are advised not to allow children to play directly with the tactile rubber crumb

Play ground: Youngsters playing on the new pitches at St George's Park Sheffield Graves, part of the £200m national 3G schemeTHE FA

December 1, 2016