Miljö- och hälsorisker med konstgräsplaner
In Sweden today many municipalities and sport clubs chooses to build artificial turfs becauseof the increased period of using the turfs during the year and less maintenance requirementsthan for natural grass fields. What could be problematic with artificial turfs is the rubbergranules used as infill material in the turf matt. The rubber granules are often made fromrecycled tires, which may contain for the human health and the environment, harmful substances.This was the reason why the Swedish Chemicals Agency commissioned a statusreport in 2006 which, among other things, concluded that the environmental and health risksassociated with granules made from recycled tiers in artificial turf fields were small, but thatthere could be a local environmental hazard. The purpose and objective of the risk assessmentwas to identify how artificial turf plans granules can affect recipients in the area closeto the pitches and provide input to reduce the spread of metals and substances harmful forboth human health and the surrounding environment. The work was divided into three parts:(1) the construction of artificial turf pitches and their material content, the spread of granulatesoutside the fields and disposal of artificial turf pitches. (2) Measured concentrations andsubstances from granulates and a review of environmental and health risk assessments fromthe literature. (3) Results from the studies own research and a brief risk assessment of artificialturf fields in Västerås. The research consisted of two parts. One mapping part, wherequestionnaires were sent out to a stratified sample of respondents and one part consisting oftaking soil profile samples and onsite visits and mapping analyzes in Arc-GIS. The results ofthe work?s own research are as follows:Youth playing soccer in an indoor hall with EPDM granules experience discomfortsuch as itching of the body and poor air quality.The majority of the adult players who answered the questionnaire do not experienceany discomfort when playing soccer on artificial turfs fields.The majority of the surveyed municipalities have not received any complaints regardingartificial turf fields (regarding human health and the surrounding environment).Artificial turf fields do not cause any negative impact on the surrounding infrastructuresuch as the storm water system.At the onsite visit the majority of the artificial turf fields had substantial amounts ofgranules spread out around the fields, both on hard surfaces, in and around stormwater inlet and on the grass and gravel covered areas.In the soil profile samples at one of the artificial turf fields, granulate was found atdepths down to 10 cm.An artificial turf field is considered worn out after 8-10 years. After that time, dependingon the fields condition, it will be reused at other areas or energy recoveredby combustion