SALEM (AP) — The Oregon Public Health Division has issued interim recommendations for school districts and other owners and operators of playing fields made from synthetic turf containing lead.

The recommendations issued Thursday followed a review of recently released findings by the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, which tested 14 turf products.

While the commission found small levels of lead in all the products, it deemed children were at no risk from exposure because the lead doesn’t readily dislodge.

But the state officials said there were still some uncertainties about health risks from very old or worn fields containing high concentrations of lead.

Lead is sometimes used as a stabilizer in the pigment of the synthetic grass blades.

“We indicate that these are interim recommendations, because probably more data will be coming,” said Richard Leiker, manager of lead programs for the health division.

The Eugene School District has tested its six existing fields, the oldest installed in 2000, and found trace amounts of lead — well below what Thursday’s memo suggests as potentially worrisome.

Two more fields were recently completed in the Bethel School District, and two are still under construction in the Eugene district. Manufacturers of the turf in those fields have guaranteed their safety, officials said.

But some tests raised concerns.

Follow-up tests on the artificial turf football field at West Salem High School show unacceptably high levels of lead, according to an early look at the results by state health officials.

“In all regards, these results look high,” said Ken Kauffman, an environmental health specialist for the health division.

But tests conducted separately in July for the Statesman Journal newspaper in Salem and for the Salem-Keizer School District found no lead in artificial turf fields at South Salem and Sprague high schools.

Most of the concern has centered on older, nylon-fiber fields.

Meanwhile, the Synthetic Turf Council, an industry group, agreed this summer to work toward a goal of eliminating lead from turf products.

The soft, springy, new-generation fields have become increasingly popular among athletic directors and players, who can use them year-round, regardless of weather.

According to the Oregon School Activities Association, there will be approximately 60 in use this fall around the state.

In its study, the Consumer Products Safety Commission found lead levels ranging from 0.09 percent to 0.96 percent in products ranging up to 9 years old.

The public health division recommendations suggest that anything up to 0.5 percent lead, so long as it’s in good condition, should be considered safe and usable.