There is a lot of weather in the UK and this interacts with normal grass pitches used for sports such as soccer and rugby to cause the pitches to be unplayable. As a response many teams have adopted the use of "artificial" pitches made from combinations of materials including shredded rubber from used car tyres. These pitches are playable in all weather conditions. They are widely used as the BBC reports:
The surfaces have been widely introduced in the UK because they can be used continuously in bad weather, avoiding postponements throughout winter, particularly at grassroots level.
The pitches are also used by 12 of 42 clubs in the top four leagues in Scottish football, two Premiership rugby union teams and rugby league team Widnes Vikings, who also share the pitch with Women's Super League teams Liverpool Ladies and Everton Ladies.
But a father whose son has contracted cancer after playing goalkeeper on the pitches claims there is a link:
Nigel Maguire says son Lewis, 18, has Hodgkin lymphoma after being exposed to the 'crumb rubber' on the surface which gives it more bounce.
This is not a new worry as this NBC report from 2014 shows.
Is there any evidence that there could be a link between the materials used in artificial pitches and cancer?