The Obama administration has announced a multi-agency federal study to look into the safety of recycled tire material used on synthetic turf fields.
“We know people are concerned about artificialturf fields, and players and their families want answers,” said EPA spokeswoman Laura Allen. “Limited studies have not shown an elevated health risk from playing onfields with tire crumb, but the existing studies do not comprehensively evaluate the concerns about health risks from exposure.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), theConsumer Product Safety Commission and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry at the Centers for Disease Control will carry out the study.
The Synthetic Turf Council, an industrygroup, said in a statement it hoped the new study would “settle this matter once and for all.”