Parents Worry About Arsenic-Based Preservative In Wooden Playgrounds

Associated Press, Staff
Published May 9, 2004

Some New Jersey parents are worried about whether a wood preservative that was long used in playground equipment may be exposing their children to increased cancer risks. Last fall the federal Environmental Protection Agency released a draft study that showed "a marginally increased risk of cancer" for children, ages 1 to 6, who are exposed to the pesticide used to treat wood. The EPA has removed the pesticide used mainly to protect lumber from decay and insect damage, from its list of approved chemicals. The industry completed its phase-out of any new products built with the pesticide in December, but some parents are still concerned about the playground equipment that's already built. "It's definitely a concern," Ridgewood mother Christina Rau told The Sunday Record of Bergen County. "They're your children. You don't want anything to happen to them." Chromated copper arsenate was the preferred preservative for outdoor lumber for decades. The wood was processed in high-pressure chambers that forced the preservative into the core of the lumber. The added chances of a child between 1 and 6 getting cancer ranged from 1 in a million, which is considered negligible, to 1 in 100,000, the draft study by the EPA found. But one industry spokesman blamed the phase-out of chromated copper arsenate on "hyperbolic nonsense" from trial lawyers and environmental activists. "Any arsenic that might be associated with the wood preservative is so minuscule that it does not pose any health risk," said Chris Hale, executive director of the Virginia-based Wood Preservative Science Council, an industry group. Experts recommend making sure children wash their hands after playing and don't eat on the play sets or let food come into contact with the wood. Other studies are looking at whether various stains or sealants can trap the arsenic. The Consumer Product Safety Commission decided a ban on the pesticide-treated wood in playground equipment was unnecessary because of the industry phase-out. But the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based research advocacy organization that has sought a ban on the treated wood, remains worried. "I would suggest that an unnecessary exposure to a human carcinogen is a choice that a lot of people would not make," said Lauren Sucher, a spokeswoman for the group.