Davis Enterprise, Beth Curda
Published February 14, 2002
Members of Better Urban Green Strategies, saying they have found arsenic at three Davis playgrounds, joined state Sen. Gloria Romero at a press conference Wednesday to denounce the use of treated wood in residential and children's areas.
Davis resident Samantha McCarthy, founder of the Davis organization, said in Sacramento Wednesday that she collected samples from five Davis playgrounds and sent them for testing. Four sets of results have been returned and indicate arsenic is present in three of the playgrounds. She is awaiting one set of results, and one play area's results were negative.
According to the results of an Environmental Working Group test, a high arsenic level was detected at Rainbow City in Community Park, McCarthy said. The tests for the sand at the base of the play structure in Central park and for the playhouses at Playfields Park in South Davis also came back positive, she said, but not as high. The test for Slide Hill Park in East Davis indicated that no arsenic was present near the swingset, and she is awaiting the results for Rosecreek Parkway in South Davis.
According to an EWG chart, 2.5 micrograms of arsenic per 100 square centimeters is what the Hazardous Substance and Waste Management Research Inc. calls a safe level; Renee Sharp, an EWG analyst, cited 0.077 micrograms as the amount of surface-level arsenic with negligible cancer risk. Arsenic is a poisonous compound that, in large doses, is found to cause lung, bladder and skin cancer.
The Davis playground test results indicated Rainbow City equipment had 74.7 micrograms, the Central Park sand had less than 0.3 micrograms and Playfields Park had 0.5 micrograms, McCarthy said. Sharp said results from kits like the one McCarthy used showed that municipal play structures tested averaged 24 micrograms of arsenic.
McCarthy said the statistics and test results are alarming because children play on the equipment, transport sand in their clothes and toys and often do not wash their hands before putting them into their mouths. She said it also is alarming that warning labels recommend safety techniques for people working with treated wood, but children are allowed to play on the structures built with it.
Sen. Romero, D-Los Angeles, introduced SB 1393 Wednesday that, according to a press release, prohibits the manufacture, sale and distribution of treated wood in California; prohibits the use of state funds to purchase recreational equipment that has been built with treated wood; requires any existing equipment available for public use prior to Jan. 1, 2003 (when the bill, if approved, would take effect), be sealed every two years to reduce public exposure to arsenic; and requires treated wood to be disposed of in hazardous waste landfills.
Sharp said anyone can purchase EWG wood and soil test kits online and administer the sample collections. According to the soil sample kit instructions provided by McCarthy, sample collectors scoop some surface soil into a resealable bag and mail it to the organization's designated lab in North Carolina.
Sharp said for the wood surface test, collectors wipe off a section of the wood about the size of a 4-year-old's handprint and send the cloth in for testing. She said slight variations in sample-collecting methods are OK because children play differently.
"There's not really a wrong way of doing this," she said, "because all we're trying to do is mimic a kid playing on the structure. Even if you don't do it exactly the way we tell you to, it's still mimicking kids playing on the wood."
McCarthy said BUGS is interested in working with the city of Davis to ensure playground safety.
City officials were unavailable for comment today.
