{"id":57270,"date":"2025-08-10T08:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T08:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/57270\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T08:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T08:41:09","slug":"asbestos-worries-cause-some-ottawa-tennis-clubs-to-close-clay-courts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/57270\/","title":{"rendered":"Asbestos worries cause some Ottawa tennis clubs to close clay courts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ThreeThree tennis balls sit on a bench at the Elmdale Tennis Club in Ottawa in May 2025. The west-of-downtown club closed its courts on Aug. 8 and it’s now awaiting the results of asbestos testing. (Trevor Pritchard\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Several tennis clubs in Ottawa are testing their clay courts for asbestos as a precautionary measure, following reports of possible contamination in parts of Quebec.<\/p>\n

The Elmdale\u00a0Tennis Club and Tennis Centre West Ottawa (TCWO)\u00a0have both closed their Har-Tru\u00a0clay courts until the results return, while the Ottawa Tennis Club and the Rideau Sports Centre are keeping\u00a0their clay courts open.<\/p>\n

Last week, some Quebec municipalities shut their clay courts down after an analysis\u00a0found above-standard asbestos concentrations in the products used to maintain them.<\/p>\n

Saint-Sauveur, Que., found samples taken from clay produced by an American company, Har-Tru, had an asbestos concentration of at least one per cent\u00a0\u2014 10 times the concentration allowed by Quebec standards.<\/p>\n

Samples\u00a0taken from an actual municipal court surface, however, had no traces of asbestos.<\/p>\n

Tennis clubs in Ottawa became aware\u00a0of the issue during the week.<\/p>\n

Chris Cobb, the secretary and spokesperson for Elmdale Tennis Club, said they spoke with other clubs before calling an emergency board meeting Friday night.<\/p>\n

They then decided\u00a0to close their courts around 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

“Obviously we hope that the results are negative. But we do have children’s camps, summer camps. And we have staff to consider \u2014 they’re there for long shifts, and they maintain the courts,” Cobb said.<\/p>\n

“It just all made sense to close down, just for a few days.”<\/p>\n

Elmdale, which only has Har-Tru\u00a0clay courts,\u00a0told members by email that “out of an abundance of caution” they were closing so they could have their bagged clay supply and the court surfaces tested.<\/p>\n

“The clay testing company took samples from the club [Saturday]\u00a0morning,”\u00a0another email said. “The company tells us they should have the testing results back to us by Monday or Tuesday.”<\/p>\n

CBC\u00a0reached the front desk at TCWO\u00a0and the Rideau Sports Centre on Saturday, both of which\u00a0confirmed they\u00a0were aware of a potential\u00a0asbestos contamination.<\/p>\n

The TCWO\u00a0said their Har-Tru courts were closed\u00a0but their indoor red clay courts, which have not been recently linked with asbestos contamination,\u00a0remain open.<\/p>\n

Elmdale\u00a0also said it was told by their Canadian supplier that Har-Tru\u00a0anticipates a\u00a0temporary hold on the import, sale, and use of its\u00a0materials in Quebec and possibly other parts of Canada.<\/p>\n

Made from natural green stone<\/p>\n

Unlike red-clay, Har-Tru is made from a natural green stone that’s\u00a0extremely hard and angular. It’s then\u00a0crushed, screened, and mixed in the precise proportions necessary to produce a consistent playing surface, according to the company’s website.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CBC emailed both clubs for an official statement but did not get\u00a0one in time for publication.<\/p>\n

The Ottawa Tennis Club declined to comment but sent CBC the statement club members got Friday. It\u00a0said they’d been in\u00a0daily contact with\u00a0Ottawa Public Health (OPS) and there is no evidence that materials on their Har-Tru court are “non-compliant.”<\/p>\n

It also said stored and surface clay\u00a0was\u00a0sampled and sent for testing Wednesday morning, with results expected early this week.<\/p>\n

“According to the information available we have currently, the reported non-compliant test results from the tennis club in Quebec pertained to raw product samples prior to application, not from material already installed on courts,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

“If at any time new information comes to light that may influence our decision to remain open we will immediately re-evaluate.”<\/p>\n

The club has also taken precautionary measures like watering more and adding extra calcium to the court, which can act as a binding agent for asbestos.<\/p>\n

\"CloseOttawa Public Health says it’s been in touch with both provincial bodies and local tennis clubs but had no further investigation to share as of late Saturday afternoon. (Francis Ferland\/CBC)No reason to panic, says expert<\/p>\n

The risk of contracting mesothelioma\u00a0\u2014 a form of cancer linked to the inhalation of asbestos fibres\u00a0\u2014 increases tenfold\u00a0after\u00a0even the slightest exposure to the fibres, according to Norman King, epidemiologist and scientific advisor for the Quebec Association for Asbestos Victims.<\/p>\n

He told CBC the closures are no reason to panic.<\/p>\n

“If we say that the risk is 10 times greater in someone slightly exposed, it is still a rare disease, it is one case per 100,000 people exposed,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In its own statement Saturday, OPH said they’d been in touch with local tennis clubs for consultations about clay courts.<\/p>\n

The health unit said they were working with the clubs and “other provincial bodies” to investigate the situation further, and had no additional information as of late Saturday afternoon to share.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three tennis balls sit on a bench at the Elmdale Tennis Club in Ottawa in May 2025. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-57270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}