Artificial turf manufacturers and officials at Lancaster County colleges and schools say there's no reason for concern that students practicing and playing on synthetic fields here are at risk of lead exposure.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission last week began looking into possible health hazards from lead in turf fields after two fields in New Jersey were found to contain unexpectedly high levels of the material.

The fields, made of aging nylon fibers, raised fears that athletes could swallow or inhale lead-laden fibers or dust. If ingested, lead can cause brain damage and other illnesses, particularly in children.

Five Lancaster County public school districts, at least one private school and the county's three colleges all have synthetic fields.

But officials at those schools said their fields are made of a different material than the fields implicated in the New Jersey health scare.

And a trade group says the New Jersey fields pose no health threat because the lead chromate used in their fibers to prevent fading is encapsulated in plastic.

"There is no scientific evidence of a health risk for children or adults based on recent test results and current knowledge of the chemical structure of aged synthetic turf products," the Synthetic Turf Council said in a news release posted Monday on its Web site, citing two scientists.

In Lancaster County, Hempfield, Manheim Township, Penn Manor, Pequea Valley and Manheim Central school districts all have synthetic fields, as do Franklin & Marshall and Elizabethtown colleges and Millersville University.

Lancaster Mennonite School and private athletic facilities, such as Lanco Field House, also have synthetic fields.

But the county's turf fields are made of polyethylene, which has not been implicated in the lead scare.

The New Jersey Health Department found lead in the two nylon fields it tested, but none in the 10 polyethylene surfaces it examined.

Authorities began testing the fields for lead while investigating whether runoff from a scrap-metal operation in Newark, N.J., had contaminated an adjacent playing field.

Manheim Township High School has four synthetic FieldTurf fields it uses for football, lacrosse, soccer, baseball, field hockey and physical education classes.

Most of the school's 1,700 students will, at one time or another, use the fields, district spokeswoman Marcie Brody said.

In choosing the synthetic material, the district specified that it contain no lead, Brody said.

Penn Manor and Pequea Valley also have FieldTurf fields, as does Millersville University.

In a letter to Penn Manor officials, FieldTurf representative Darren Gill said the nylon fibers New Jersey officials found to contain high levels of lead "are not even remotely similar to FieldTurf's fibers."

Elizabethtown College has one synthetic turf field for lacrosse and field hockey, sports information director Jim Miller said.

The surface is made by Sofsport, which also supplied the turf at Lanco Field House.

"We've not had any problems with this at all," Miller said.

Hempfield officials also reported no problems with their fields, which are made by Prograss and A-Turf, which also supplied the surfaces at Lancaster Mennonite, F&M and Manheim Central.

Jim Dobmeier, president and founder of A-Turf Inc., said he is confident there are no health risks associated with his company's products — or those of his competitors.

"Incomplete research and a lack of scientific evidence" prompted New Jersey officials to conclude that the synthetic fields posed a risk, he said.

"There's a 40-year history of various types of synthetic surfaces and no data at all to support that there's a hazard to humans," Dobmeier said.

"In time, I think people will realize this was a lot of panic over nothing."

E-mail: bwallace@lnpnews.com