Dutch study calls crumb rubber football pitches safe

A Dutch government public health organization has said it is safe to play football and other sports on artificial turf fields covered in rubber crumb.

The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment published a report saying that the health risk from playing on such fields, which are common throughout the Netherlands and elsewhere as low maintenance alternatives to natural grass, is “virtually negligible.”

The rubber crumbs, typically made from old car tyres, give synthetic turf fields properties similar to real grass, but have been the focus of ongoing fears that the chemicals in the shredded tyres include carcinogens that could affect the health of players.

The Dutch investigation tested 100 sports fields and studied available scientific literature. The organization said it also will carefully study American research expected on the fields early this year, which have been in use in the US for longer than in the Netherlands.

The Dutch study said: “No indications were found in the available literature of a link between playing sports on synthetic turf fields with an infill of rubber granulate and the incidence of leukemia and lymph node cancer. No international research has demonstrated this connection.”