The Ajax Academy, De Toekomst, one of the "hot beds" of European Youth Football sent letters to club members' parents to reassure them that all the Ajax 3G pitches with rubber crumb infill are being removed. The children will not be playing on the artificial turf for the foreseeable future.
A Dutch TV production, Zemla, in 2006 revealed serious short comings in a government led research project on the safety of 3G pitches. The report stated that the pitches may not be healthy!
There are 2,000 or so pitches of this kind in the country, each pitch is worth 120 metric tons of shredded tyres, that help cushion the ball bounce.
http://www.sportandplay.co.uk/3g-pitches.php
I find them in all over after a game of walking football and they get dragged into the house on socks, boots and so on. They could get caught in cuts, under nails or accidently swallowed. Well, some would say that would be bad luck??
Some studies say that the rubber pellets might include carcinogens, with children being most vulnerable. What about childrens' playground surfaces then?
The issue had been discovered in the USA and raised further when a teenage goalkeeper, who had played at Darlington and Leeds United academies, developed Hodgkin's lymphoma and is in remission for the second time after a relapse. Studies in Norway as far back as 2006 have been referred to since the Scandinavians rely heavily on artificial pitches, especially indoors. Having attended the Gothia Cup in Gothenburg, annually since 1999 we have found the rubber bits in our socks daily. Many pitches are artificial and the evolution of Icelandic football has been caused by the development of Football Houses.
There is other evidence of young footballers suffering cancer in a study carried out by the University of Washington in the USA, with a number of footballing cancer patients (158), 60% being goalkeepers. One University of Miami goalkeeper, Austen Everett, died from non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2012. A study in Michigan in 2008 revealed the content of sampled rubber bits-arsenic, chromium and lead. Another company in Holland, Chemosphere in 2013 flagged up similar conclusions.
How big a sample do we need to worry about this development?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/health/are-artificial-sports-pitches-causing-cancer/
The English FA is proud to be opening a number of new 4G pitches at some considerable investment (£260 million) which will act as "City Hubs" in 30 or more regions through the country where football's future is being developed.
It is the type of tyre used that is important and the FA is unequivocal that its rubber crumbs are safe and meet European Standards. The Dutch ones did not, as they were laid down a decade ago, having been shredded from rubber pipes used in the petro-chemical industry.
How can I tell that the various 3G pitches that I have played on over the past ten or more years are not from a similar source?
The Dutch research study was extraordinarily inadequate, using a small sample size which paved the way for pitches to be installed. The Dutch FA and the Cruyff Foundation now have to consider ripping up the present artificial play areas (the famous Cruyff Courts) that have generated successful footballers in the country.
The answer may be to replace the rubber with pellets made from cork and coconut fibres, but the costs would be 15,000 Euros per pitch. Of course the tyre and rubber lobby also have to recycle their products annually to be used somewhere. The Trans-Pennine Trail in South Yorkshire has a rubberoid surface, worryingly, as does the local childrens' playground and the PCFC Practice area!
https://www.sundaypost.com/inside-the-sunday-edition/can-five-a-sides-cause-cancer-grieving-mum-urges-uk-authorities-to-stop-using-artificial-pitches/
And then there is rugby!
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