News Coverage
Cities, schools replacing play equipment amid health concerns
Published May 23, 2003
As some communities begin tearing out wooden playground equipment treated with an arsenic-based pesticide, a national group is urging cities and towns to refrain from closing or dismantling playgrounds that cannot be immediately replaced.
Health concerns about pressure-treated wood have spurred municipalities and school districts to look at the condition and makeup of their playgrounds. Concerns expressed by federal organizations including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Consumer Product Safety Commission have led some places to start removing the outdated equipment.
Officials in Lancaster have received the first of what they hope will be a series of grants to replace wooden equipment at 23 playgrounds, public works director Charlotte Katzenmoyer said.
"We were planning on removing it because most of it was built in the '70s and '80s and does not meet safety standards," she said. "But now there's more of a sense of urgency involved."
Most wooden playground equipment now in use has been treated with chromated copper arsenate, or CCA, which resists rot and insect damage. The government's concern is that children can get arsenic residue from the treated wood on their hands, then put their hands in their mouths.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission in February said children could face an increased lifetime risk of developing lung or bladder cancer from playing on CCA-treated wood. The Environmental Working Group and the Healthy Building Network, a coalition of consumer and environmental groups, petitioned in 2001 for a CCA ban.
"We are encouraging people to eliminate pressure-treated wood as quickly as possible," said Claire Barnett, executive director of Healthy Building Network.
In the best case, Lancaster would like all of the affected equipment replaced in five years, but it remains to be seen whether officials there will get enough grant funding - an average of $90,000 per playground - to make that happen, Katzenmoyer said.
Donna Thompson, director of The National Program for Playground Safety, a nonprofit playground group financed through a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urged communities and schools to resist "jumping the gun."
"It's totally inappropriate and it's a waste of money to just start ripping out playground equipment," she said. "Kids are going to pick up a whole lot more (arsenic) crawling across the wooden deck at their home than they will on playground equipment."
She added that sealants can be applied to the treated wood as a protective measure.
Arsenic, both manufactured and naturally occurring, is known to cause cancer, but the industry has said the arsenic-based preservative is safe.
Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a voluntary decision by the industry to move consumer use of treated lumber away from CCA-treated wood by December 31, 2003, in favor of other preservatives. As of January 1, 2004, the agency will not allow CCA to treat wood intended for most residential settings.
The EPA recommends children's hands be washed immediately after they use playground equipment made of the wood. The agency is not recommending removal or replacement of existing structures but says that arsenic seepage could be reduced by coating treated wood with a sealant.
However, communities tearing out the equipment include Lancaster and Des Moines, Iowa, where spokeswoman Amelia Morris said playground equipment was removed last year and replaced because of fears over CCA.
Other communities are considering their options and a few, including Hermosa Beach, Calif., and Gainesville, Fla., have banned CCA wood in playgrounds. One state - New York - also has passed a ban.
In Pennsylvania, the state Education Department sent a letter recently to all school districts to alert them about the possible health risks of pressure-treated wood playground equipment, spokeswoman Ana Gomez said.
Among the department's suggestions: Discourage children from eating at affected playgrounds, and do not burn CCA-treated wood that gets pulled out.
Tampa, Fla., parks director Ross Ferlita said the city has replaced most of its wooden play equipment - because it was old, not because of health fears.
"We did our own testing and we found that you'd have to be wallowing in arsenic for a long, long time to have any effect," he said. "Everybody got all excited about it - we certainly were concerned - but there's really a lot of hype."