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Dorval to re-examine plans for artificial turf over health concerns

Anne Sutherland and Alycia Ambroziak
The Gazette
Thursday, May 8, 2008

Dorval officials are  taking another look at plans to install artificial turf on a soccer field next to the Sarto Desnoyers Community Centre.

“I wouldn’t say we were officially reconsidering the decision,  but we are looking at the matter again,” Dorval Mayor Edgar Rouleau said in a recent interview.

Rouleau said he has asked the Quebec government, which is subsidizing some of the $2.1 million project, to take a look at studies that suggest some artificial turf might not be health-friendly.

“These things seem to depend on what article one reads,” he said. “Some studies say it’s okay, others say it’s not.”

One way or another, added the mayor, there is ample time to take another look at the issue since the artificial turf is not scheduled to be installed until September – after the expected release of a city of Montreal public health review on artificial turf.

Montreal’s public health department’s review was sparked by U.S. studies  linking some artificial playing fields with toxins. In New Jersey, high levels of lead were found in two older playing fields made out of nylon fibres. Ten other  fields made with polyethylene fibres were fine. As well, a study two years ago in New York found that rubber pellets used in some artificial turf contained high levels of zinc as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, likely carcinogens.

Officials for FieldTurf Tarkett, a leading Montreal-based manufacturer of artificial turf, said in previous interviews that they expect the Montreal Health department review to declare its products safe because the rubber FieldTurf uses has been stripped of impurities and the company uses  polyethylene –  not nylon –  fibres.

However, local environmental activist Marita Kehr not only opposes the installation of artificial turf in Dorval, she is also upset that seven mature trees were cut down to make room for the playing field.

“Those were 50-year-old trees and they all came under the axe,” said Kehr, who lives a kilometre away from the field.

“People I spoke to were outraged that these trees were cut down and we were in the dark about it,” she added.“There is no shade there now and you cannot undo the damage.”