News Coverage
Missouri Studies Arsenic Levels in Treated Wood at 8 State Parks
A Pesticide Was Applied To Protect Picnic Tables and Playground Equipment
Published March 5, 2002
John Beckermann and his daughter Allyson like to go to Washington State Park on warm weekends to hike and play and picnic.
It never occurred to Beckermann that the wood in the playground that his daughter climbed on or in the picnic tables they ate on contained arsenic -- a human carcinogen.
The wood is treated with a pesticide -- chromated copper arsenate, or CCA -- to protect it from insects and decay. The pesticide contains arsenic. Environmentalists say any exposure to arsenic increases children's risk of developing cancer.
Federal and state officials are still evaluating the treated wood. Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last month that the lumber industry would phase out the product over the next two years. In 2004, the EPA will ban the product from residential use. Washington State Park, where 7-year-old Allyson Beckermann plays, is one of eight state parks Missouri is testing for arsenic levels from treated wood. The department plans to release a report in the next several weeks. So far, arsenic in the soil samples appear to be at safe levels, said Randy Maley, an environmental specialist for the Missouri Department of Health.
"We at the Health Department were not terribly concerned with the levels that they're seeing," he said.
Neither is Allyson's father.
"I just don't feel it's that big of a deal. It wouldn't deter me from going there tomorrow," said Beckermann, of Hillsboro.
Washington State Park, off Highway 21, 14 miles north of Potosi in Washington County, is the closest of the eight parks to the St. Louis area.
"We're trying to determine what suggestions to make to state parks," said Julieann Warren, an environmental specialist at the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
Illinois uses recycled products - a mixture of wood and plastic - in its state parks, said Tim Schweizer, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
Some local parks departments also are moving away from the arsenic-treated lumber. Many use molded plastic and metal play structures rather than wood. Peter Dunn, park operating officer at the St. Louis County Parks Department, said the department sealed all CCA-treated picnic tables last year. Soon it will replace them because of public concern, he said.
The EPA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission are studying the residential risks of treated lumber. Once those studies are complete, Warren said, Missouri will compare its data with the studies.
In the last decade in Missouri, there have been five or six cases of arsenic poisoning through working with the wood and burning it, Maley said. None of the cases involved children.
Experts say exposure to arsenic for long periods may increase the risk of skin, liver, bladder, kidney and lung cancer.
The EPA has not suggested that the treated lumber be replaced, nor has it concluded that the wood "poses unreasonable risks to the public," according to a statement the agency released last month.
In contrast, Richard Wiles, senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental research organization based in Washington, said all CCA-treated products need to be removed.
"There's really no excuse for having arsenic in wood in the first place," Wiles said, "It's a proven human carcinogen. End of discussion."
The amount of arsenic found on play structures is twice as much found in drinking water, he said, adding that some decks had five times more arsenic than water.
Data from the Treated Wood Council disagrees. The council, base in Fairfax, Va., said a child could play on a CCA-treated play set for 24 hours straight "and still not reach the level of arsenic that they get every day from food, water and other natural sources."
Local lumberyards say sales of the treated wood remain steady for this time of year, but some predict lower sales in spring and summer when area residents are building fences, decks and climbers.
"It's just going to be a period where people are switching over from the CCA to the alternative treated products," said Tom Dixon, vice president of Beyers Lumber Co. in University City.