Synthetic soccer field gets the go ahead. Montreal public health now reviewing potential risks | 24CA News

Montreal public well being officers say a evaluation of the potential well being dangers of artificial turf might be accomplished by the tip of the yr.

The news comes because the borough of Côte-Des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-De-Grâce gave the inexperienced gentle to plans for a brand new synthetic turf soccer pitch at Mackenzie-King park lower than 24 hours in the past. Residents who realized of the deliberate evaluation surprise if the borough knew earlier than Tuesday evening’s borough council assembly when borough councillors permitted the plan following a heated debate.

“Wouldn’t it be reasonable to simply suspend this project until we have these recommendations from the direction de la santé publique?” mentioned resident Line Bonneau, who’s been main the struggle towards the substitute turf.

For months the borough weighed the professionals and cons of changing the soccer pitch at Mackenzie-King park from grass to synthetic turf.  Residents who help the plan say there isn’t sufficient house to play soccer at Martin Luther King Jr. The park much less is than three kilometres away, which has had artificial turf for years.

“We cannot play in the Martin Luther King soccer field because there are a lot of people and they don’t allow us to play,” famous 13-year-old Wassim Sahi who says, even when he tries to make use of fields at non-public establishments along with his mates, they will’t.

According to the borough, changing grass to artificial materials at that park will add 90 hours of taking part in time per week for customers.

Borough mayor Gracia Kasoki Katahwa has argued that they needed to discover a steadiness between assembly the wants of youngsters who’ve few locations to play and environmental safeguards, and that they opted for synthetic turf based mostly on the suggestions from Montreal Public Health that they’d obtainable.

Those pointers are from 2014.

Katahwa acknowledges that there are some well being dangers however defined, “(from) what I saw in those documents, it’s a lesser risk than the benefit of having people moving and being active.”

Borough officers haven’t mentioned in the event that they knew about plans to revise suggestions, however in an announcement to Global News wrote, “the Ville de Montréal is closely monitoring the evolution of public health recommendations concerning synthetic turf and will adapt its practices to the latest if necessary.”