Arsenic-laced wood prompts concerns
MSNBC.com, Francesca Lyman
Published August 7, 2001
This week, Your Environment tackles a question from a reader concerned about the safety of chemical-treated wood used to make playground equipment. The question is timely: In response to many similar concerns, the Environmental Protection Agency is currently expediting its review of arsenic-treated wood.
Question: I have read about the chemical-treated wood and wood chips they are now using at playgrounds and on decks. Are these safe? Can they
hurt my 2-year-old niece when she is playing?
Answer: Watching kids swing from the rungs of a jungle gym can be worry enough for parents. Now they may face another concern - the playground equipment their children are touching and climbing. Some experts are worried about arsenic, a key component in a substance widely used to treat the wood the equipment is made from.
Even though arsenic exists naturally in the earth's crust - in rock, soil, shale and in the seas - it can be dangerous to the nervous system when inhaled, ingested or when it comes in contact with the skin. The Environmental Protection Agency considers it a human carcinogen.
Arsenic is not just in park and playground wood. That green-tinged
wood that is found in most outdoor lumber used for decks, patio furniture
and benches, as well as wood chips recycled from them, is treated with a
compound called chromated-copper arsenate. CCA is a mix of three
chemicals: arsenic, used to repel insects; copper, used to kill molds and fungi
and retard rot; and chromium, used to fix these two other chemicals.
Should CCA be banned from
wood products used in
playgrounds?
* 5210 responses
Yes
47%
No
53%
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So effective is this mixture at preventing rot that CCA-treated wood
lasts five times longer than other lumber placed outdoors, according to the
preserved-wood industry. And the EPA prefers CCA as a less dangerous
alternative to the preservers creosote and pentachlorophenol for helping
wood keep longer and thus conserving trees.
Some 80 percent of the outdoor lumber is treated with CCA, and
outdoor decking and construction has grown 14 times during the last 25
years.
But as effective as it is in stopping rot, CCA, a restricted pesticide
registered by EPA, is increasingly spurring health and environmental
concerns. The fact that kids come in contact with this treated wood makes
it particularly of concern, says Anne Lindsay, a manager in the Office of
Pesticide Programs at EPA.
"The chemicals used to
treat wood can stay in it for
10 years or more," says
Lindsay. "We also know
that it can slowly leach out
of the wood, and that it can
rub off or turn up in the dirt
underneath the play areas,
but we're not sure yet how
much they can be exposed
to."
Kids are particularly
vulnerable to pesticides and preservatives, according to EPA, because they
absorb more pesticide per pound of body weight. They are more likely to
play on floorboards and decks and to put their hands in their mouths.
A BIT OF HISTORY
Ten years ago EPA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission,
after reviewing studies showing that CCA was not readily absorbed
through the skin, concluded that CCA-treated wood posed "no
unreasonable risks" to ordinary consumers, while advising some
precautions to anyone working with wood. The EPA decided against a
mandatory label informing consumers of the presence of arsenic in favor of
a voluntary label.
But two years ago, "Kids' Space," a playground structure at
Terwilliger Elementary School in Gainesville, Fla. was razed partly because
of concerns about relatively high levels of arsenic leaking into the soil from
the treated wood used to build the equipment.
Since then, dozens of
other playgrounds in Florida
have closed in response to the
scare. The Disney World
Animal Kingdom theme park
opted to use a less toxic
treatment for their fencing and
animal enclosures because of concerns that animals could be hurt by
chewing on the wood.
Meanwhile, new studies prompted EPA to reassess the safety of the
wood treatment method and the CPSC to consider a petition to ban the
compound in playground use. Among the studies:
A recent analysis done by University of Florida researchers for the
Florida Department of Environmental Protection found that the dose of
arsenic to children on playgrounds could be higher and more dangerous
than that found in previously accepted studies. Toxicologist Stephen
Roberts, a lead scientist on the study, found that previous calculations of
risk - in terms of how much preservative might rub off on hands or be
accidentally ingested - may have been vastly underestimated so as to "be
unacceptable from a health protection standpoint."
The California State Department of Health Services also looked at the
amount of arsenic rubbed off on municipal playground surfaces and found
significant risks in 1987. The state prohibited any state funds used to
purchase playground or recreational equipment treated this way unless it
was free of "visible arsenical surface deposits" and required sealants "to
prevent direct skin contact with the preservatives."
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A coalition of consumer groups, including the Environmental Working
Group and the Healthy Building Network, argue that arsenic is a much
more potent cancer-causing agent than previously recognized and that more
arsenic can be dislodged from wood surfaces than previously thought.
ADULTS IMPACTED TOO
EPA is also concerned about CCA's impact on workers, as well as
do-it-your-selfers who might work with the wood. The danger is that the
sawdust can be inhaled or ingested.
Take the example of Rick Feutz, a Washington state teacher who was
building a floating raft for his kids. In the course of sawing the wood, he
became achy and nauseous and was eventually diagnosed with arsenic
poisoning. Years later, he still suffers loss of motor control, weakness in
his arms and legs, and a partially-paralyzed face with a drooping eye.
Earlier this spring, lawyers in Miami filed a class action lawsuit against
the wood preservative industry, Home Depot and Lowe's. Their suit
claims that people are being poisoned by the arsenic in the wood, and that
the industry showed a "negligent, reckless, and/or intentional disregard of
the harmful effects of the chemicals used in the treatment process."
In response, the American Wood Preservers Institute, which
represents the industry, said that the treatment method is totally safe,
adding that there have been no medical studies showing evidence of harm
from contact with this wood.
"The small amounts of arsenic that come off the wood are not a
concern," says Scott Ramminger, a spokesman for the AWPI.
Nevertheless, Ramminger says, AWPI will abide by any new findings and
recommendations by EPA and CPSC.
The EPA is currently expediting its review of CCA, in response to
public demands and call for action by Congress. This week, Senator Bill
Nelson (D.-Fla.) called for EPA to report to Congress within a month on
whether it was safe for children to play on or around CCA-treated wood
and for consumers to use it for decks and other applications.
As part of the expedited review, EPA has commissioned new health
studies to look at the residues of chemicals coming off playground
surfaces. At issue, says EPA's Lindsay, is whether residues are high
enough to warrant concern, since kids "spend a lot of time on playground
equipment." The agency is also looking at occupational exposures and
trying to assess what level is safe.
What may be a bigger issue
is how much CCA leachate gets
into the soil and where it goes.
More than 10 million cubic
meters of CCA-treated wood is
manufactured each year to make
picnic tables, decks, highway
sound barriers, telephone poles,
docks and other structures,
notes David Stilwell, author of a
study by the Connecticut
Agricultural Experiment Station.
"Due to the massive amounts of
CCA treated wood sold each
year, the extent of dispersal of
these additives from the wood
could have a considerable
environmental impact," he wrote
in the Bulletin of Environmental
Contamination and Toxicology.
By September, EPA could
have some new standards for the
industry or a response to
consumers, says Lindsay.
The CPSC invites public comment on the ban, so if you'd like to
comment on the petition to ban CCA from wood products used in
playgrounds, you can respond by Sept. 11, 2001.
In the meantime, if you have pressure-treated wood, and you're
concerned, EPA cautions against becoming alarmed. "Take commonsense
measures and wash your children's hands after they play," says Lindsay, "just as you would on any playground."
Renee Sharp, a toxicologist with Environmental Working Group,
which did its own review of the wood in a report called "Poisoned
Playgrounds," suggests that parents ask their local parks and school
whether playground equipment has CCA-coated wood; if so, the wood can
be coated with polyurethane and other sealants to help protect children's
health. Do-it-your-selfers, she adds, should turn to other options, such as
naturally pest-resistant types like cedar, redwood or other arsenic-free
alternatives.
