Should I be getting angry about the fact that 3G pitches and plastic crumb playgrounds poisoning our children and waterways?

[ticktickticktickBOOM]

I only heard about this today but apparently all these play surfaces are made out of toxic car tyres which are continually releasing chemical dust onto our children and toxic leachate into our waterways!

Every school my child has been at has installed one of these in the last 10 years, and every playground has this.

Apparently the NASUWT teacher union are petitioning the government to get these banned.

Does anyone know more about this? Is this a giant health bomb just waiting to happen?

YABU - just another worry, let it go
YANBU - this is horrific, we should all be up in arms about our childrens health being experimented on like this

Are you talking rubberised surfaces or 3G? They are 2 different forms of construction. For someone not aware of the nuances you might well be mistaking one for another. I don't say that to be patronising it's just not something a layman would be aware of.

Also @Whydoweedsgrowsofast ,I think your figure of 5000 may be just for full size 3G football pitches.

There are thousands more plastic crumb playground surfaces than this.

Many, many schools and public playgrounds have them.

I am talking about plastic crumb playground surface and 3G surfaces. They are made from the same components of recycled car tyres so they are virtually the same when it comes to toxic potential.

You're not wrong to be concerned. You are wrong to describe it as experimenting on our children!

Now that the problem has been recognized, they are being phased out. They are 3g pitches. There are two generations of pitches after that. Any new pitch will be 5g, which is a completely different surface.

Are the dangerous ones going to be removed?

They will be over time, but it's not as simple as ripping them up and replacing them. They're very expensive for a start. Councils don't have money for the basics now, never mind to replace working pitches that, individually, have very low impact and provide much-used facilities

Plastic crumb isn't the same as 3G. Modern polyeutherane plastic crumb surface doesn't have the same issue.

It can only be seen as a risk if massively degrading.

You seem knowledgeable on this, I have only found about this problem today.

So, the new surfaces being put down aren't as bad as the one's laid down 10 years ago which are heavy in PAH's and other toxic chemicals? How much safer are they?

Are the old ones being removed now that they are deemed unsafe? There are literally thousands upon thousands of these surfaces laid down 10 years ago in svhool playgrounds all over the country. What is going to be done to remove this toxic hazard from childrens schools and playgrounds?

i get your point but I feel like it's being over the top

It is an area adjacent to my work world. The new ones are massively safer. In effect they seal the chemicals inside a plastic/ fibreglass mixture. The mixture prevents the escape of concerning chemicals. In 3G those crumbs are completely uncoated and also are loose and bounce around.

I wonder what the plans are to remove the toxic ones - children are obviously still being exposed.

Not unreasonable at all and it’s evident these things do contain heavy metals and other toxins. But the establishment will downplay it like they always do. Like when they said lead in petrol was fine or mercury in fillings were safe or asbestos. Or when docs said smoking was beneficial. Just because these things are not instantly toxic doesn’t mean they are safe. Low doses of toxins over a long time are very harmful.

The old ones have been being removed for years. As people have said we are 2 generations later on pitches. The playground construction was always safer as it was bound but again massively improved in the last 10+ years

The school I work in still has abestos. 3G pitches won’t be replaced, they bring in too much money for the MAT.

God yeh!!! Astroturf bits drive me nuts! Is that a health risk?

Not if you just sweep them up and put them in the bin. The real human health risk is in inhaling the particles. That's why the first issues were seen in goalkeepers.

What issues were seen in goalkeepers?

3G pitches have been anecdotally linked with increased cancer risks. It is thought that goalies are at particular risk as they are often on the ground, and so more likely to inhale particles than outfield players. However, it's not a proven link.

When my brother was very young he was hit by a swing and smashed his head on the concrete floor of a playground, knocking him out.

It may have been what triggered his life long epilepsy.

So I'm very big on having the rubber flooring in playgrounds.

Pet flea treatments are poisoning our waterways.
I live near some environmentally precious chalk streams and I can’t believe when I see so many people encouraging their dogs to enter the water!
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/243875/toxic-flea-tick-treatments-polluting-uk/

Are you going to stop washing your clothes because everytime you do that nylon fibres breaknoff in their millions and end up in the waterways.