Poisonous Playgrounds Arsenic-Laced Wood Prompts Concerns

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Poisonous Playgrounds? Arsenic-Laced Wood Prompts Concerns-

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SafetyAlerts

February 21, 2002

Poisonous Playgrounds?

Arsenic-Laced Wood Prompts Concerns

 

(SafetyAlerts) - 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.

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. "

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. “ " ake

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.

 

Francesca Lyman is an environmental and travel journalist and editor of the

American Museum of Natural History book, " Inside the Dzanga-Sangha Rain

Forest " (Workman, 1998)

 

Source: MSNBC

 

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