NEW YORK - They're always green, never need mowing and can play host to young athletes in fair weather and foul.

But in many places across the country, artificial turf fields are becoming as hotly contested as some of the soccer and football games that are played on them.

A new generation of synthetic grass, made in part with ground-up rubber from used tires, has proven popular for schools and parks as a way to reduce maintenance costs and raise the usage of athletic fields. In addition to needing no mowing, it requires no watering, fertilizing or weeding. It also dries faster after rain and holds up to wear better than grass.

But in communities ranging from Connecticut to California, some environmentally conscious parents have raised questions about the fields, focusing on the potential for children to be exposed to toxins from used tires and to lead contained in the dyes used in many types of artificial grass.

"I don't want my kid inhaling that or bringing it home on his shoes," said Patricia Taylor of Connecticut, who became concerned about artificial fields when her 12-year-old son Liam came home with rubber crumbs in his hair and black rubber dust on his skin.

"Someone said you get more rubber dust off the tires of cars on I-95," the highway that runs close to her town. "I say, my kid doesn't play on I-95," she said.

Questions about the safety of the fields have led legislators in Minnesota, New Jersey and New York to introduce bills that would bar the installation of additional artificial turf fields until those states complete health and environmental studies. Less sweeping bills in California and Connecticut call for health studies but wouldn't prohibit new fields.

Industry representatives defend the fields as safe and say the concerns about health and environmental effects are based on hypothetical risks, not reality.

"For over 40 years, there has never been a case of human illness or environmental damage arising out of any of the materials used in synthetic turf," said Rick Doyle, president of the Synthetic Turf Council, a trade group based in Atlanta.

Unlike the first generation of artificial turf developed in the 1960s and marketed as AstroTurf, newer fields are not simply hard mats of nylon grass, which many professional athletes have complained lead to increased knee and foot injuries.

The new fields more closely resemble natural turf because sand and "crumb rubber," made from ground-up tires, are spread on the fields and settle in among the blades of artificial grass, resembling the dirt in which real grass grows. That makes the fields softer and safer, according to the turf council, which says 25 million tires are recycled annually for use in the fields instead of being dumped in landfills.

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