News Coverage
Don't drink this wood
Published September 1, 2002
By no means burn it, and you had better be very careful if you saw it, but arsenic-treated wood is not very high on the list of this world's dangers, and you should not let recent publicity about its threat to children get you overly worried.
The very word "arsenic" is scary, of course, and arsenic is in fact a human carcinogen. But chromated copper arsenate, also known as CCA, has been used for decades as a pesticide on lumber in picnic tables, playground equipment and outdoor decks, and as a study of studies by a group of Florida doctors concluded, there is no evidence that the chemical combination has made even one child ill. While it has persuaded the lumber industry to phase out use of the pesticide and to label products treated by it, the Environmental Protection Agency is quoted as saying it "does not pose an unreasonable risk to the public." A lumber association has information showing that virtually any activity you undertake is riskier than being around this lumber even every day for years. While the association has a self-interest in making that argument, the usually timorous EPA would hardly be downplaying the risks if normal contact were known to be the least bit imperiling.
Some note in news stories that the amount of CCA in treated wood is as much as 10 times the amount of arsenic allowed in water, but you don't drink wood, and ingestion is what is harmful. Those who are concerned say children do lick their hands and that some eat dirt that could be contaminated. They have told the press, too, that the cancers might not show up until 20 years after exposure. According to the Associated Press, one organization, the Environmental Working Group, says a study shows older lumber treated with the pesticide is as loaded with arsenic as newer lumber similarly treated.
If you want to play it safe, follow the reported recommendations of the Environmental Working Group to wash children's hands after exposure, to put tablecloths on suspect picnic tables when eating and to seal the wood on your arsenic-treated decks every half-year or so. Keep in mind that sawing this wood is not advisable short of special precautions and that some say burning it could be highly precarious.
But understand, too, that the dangers of ordinary exposure to this wood are probably less than you or your children face going up and down stairs. Based on what's now known, the only cause for alarm is what the trial lawyers are doing with all of this.