Agenda item

The Committee considered the following report:

“1.0     Purpose of Report

1.1        At the People and Communities Committee meeting on 9 August 2016 and 11 October 2016, reports on the safety of 3G pitches were tabled.  At the 1 November 2016 Council meeting the following request was minuted:

            ‘At the request of Councillor Boyle, the Council agreed that the People and Communities Committee be provided with clarification around the assertions which had been made by Murfitts Industries Limited that its tyres were ‘only sourced from within the EU’ and that its rubber granulate product was ‘classified as non-hazardous under normal use and handling conditions.’

1.2       This report provides further clarification from Murfitts Industries Ltd regarding the safety of their product and also provides results to the Committee on independent safety tests carried out by the Council.

2.0       Recommendation

2.1       The Committee is asked to;

·        Note the report.

3.0       Main report

3.1       The Council currently has a contract in place with Laydex (NI) Ltd for the supply of rubber crumb.  The product currently being supplied by Laydex (NI) Ltd is manufactured by Murfitts Industries Ltd.

3.2       Further information provided by Murfitts Industries Ltd

3.2.1    In response to our request for further product safety information, Murfitts Industries Ltd confirmed that:

            ‘…. at Murfitts we physically handle every tyre that is received on our plant.  Each tyre has a unique serial number which identifies it.  From this number we know if the tyre was produced before or after 2013.  2013 was the year the European regulations came in on the makeup of tyres.  We only use tyres post 2013 in the production of our rubber crumb.  Tyres pre 2013 are rejected and are used as alternative fuel.’

3.2.2    Murfitts Industries have also provided the Council with:

a)     their public statement in response to recent media reports regarding the safety of rubber crumb is available on the Council’s website.  This document states that ‘… at Murfitts we have our products regularly tested to all known standards to ensure that they are as safe as possible.  These tests include toxicology reports, assessing our product for a variety of substances to ensure that these are within safe limits, if present at all’ and ‘….we source all our raw material tyres from within the UK and check every single one that goes into our production process.  For tyres to be legally manufactured and sold within the EU they must meet the requirements set out in the EU REACH Regulations (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) which stipulate limits for a wide range of substances used in manufacturing products of all kinds.’

3.2.3   

b)     the latest report from the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) dated 28 February 2017 which concluded that the ‘ECHA has found no reason to advise people against playing sports on synthetic turf containing recycled rubber granules as infill material.  This advice is based on ECHA’s evaluation that there is a very low level of concern from exposure to substances found in the granules.  This is based on the current evidence available’. 

3.2.4    A full copy of the ECHA press release and report may be obtained from https://echa.europa.eu/-/recycled-rubber-infill-causes-a-very-low-level-of-concern

3.2.5    As reported in the 9 October 2016 Committee report, Murfitts Industries Ltd had previously provided the Council with a technical report undertaken by Labosport which tested their SBR (styrene butadiene rubber) granulate to EN 71-3 Safety of Toys Part 3: Migration of Certain Elements.  This standard sets limits on a range of chemicals in order to minimise children’s exposure to certain potentially toxic elements should the toy / material be ingested.  The report concluded that the rubber granulate complied with the requirements of the standard. 

3.3       Tests undertaken by the Council

3.3.1    As a further step, the Council has also carried out its own independent testing of rubber crumb samples from each of their 3G pitches for the most commonly cited cancer causing compounds in rubber crumb, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).  All of the samples passed the EU REACH Regulation Article 28 standard for the eight specified polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. 

3.3.2    At this time, there continues to be no direct evidence to support a link between rubber crumb from 3G pitches and cancer. The Council continues to keep this matter under review.

3.4       Financial and Resource Implications

            None

3.5       Equality or Good Relations Implications

            None.”

            The Committee noted the report.