Free Republic

Following increasing concerns about the safety of recycled tire material used on synthetic turf fields, the Obama administration announced Friday a federal study to look into potential health risks. The material in question -- ground-up waste tires -- has been a source of debate across the country since late 2014, when parents and health and environment advocates began demanding studies about whether repeated contact with the material could cause cancer. That's the year a University of Washington soccer coach came forward with a list of a few dozen young athletes with cancer who regularly played on turf fields -- surfaces...

University of Miami athlete Austen Everett died from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2012. Her mother said it was soon after that, as she found out about even more sick players, that she came to believe that artificial turf used on soccer fields was the culprit. "I realized, 'Oh my God, the thing that she loved most probably killed her,'" June Leahy told NBC News. "And that was hard." Leahy says since her daughter's death, she still hasn't gotten enough answers — or action from lawmakers and regulators.