The 2018 ESTO Congress was held at the beautiful La Manga Hotel and Resort in Murcia, Spain on 3-4 September. ETRA was among the speakers to comment on, and discuss the issues surrounding the RIVM Revision Report on PAHs that was published by ECHA in August.
Geom. Bruno Marabotto, ETRA VP and Co-Chair of the ETRA Turf Working Group, was joined by Ettore Musacchi, ETRA President, for the presentation. They identified and explained many critical points concerning the PAH parameters and the impacts that these will have over time on all of those directly involved : installers, players and maintenance crews, in order to make proper reflections during the six month consultation period just started.
The most critical and significant points reflect the lack of evidence of an actual risk to players, or, a definition of the assumed level of risk according to the content of the PAHs instead of the actual release and substance intake by players. Further, they pointed out the nominal, limited human benefits that could be gained if the proposed limits become permanent do not appear to be warranted on the basis of the high environmental and economic costs.
The report itself shows three problems connected to enforceability:
- · The Differences between member states
- · Common understandings across the EU
- · An absence of an EU harmonised methodology for PAH extraction and analyses
It would appear that an eventual adoption of the new parameters would increase confusion and incertitude instead of contributing to safer conditions for players, as noted above.
For more detail you may download the ETRA presentation (PDF). These points have been prepared by the ETRA Turf Working Group which includes chemists, researchers and medical doctors. A more detailed revision of the Restriction Report will be completed in the coming months.
The Congress also offered an opportunity to meet the new ESTO president Stefan Diderich, who redesigned the strategy of the organisation to better face the future challenges of the sector.
