Report Finds Arsenic Stays Dangerous in Wood

A new study warns that arsenic used to treat outdoor wood products doesn't dissipate with time and that children who play on decade-old equipment are as likely to be exposed to high levels of the potential cancer-causing agent as are those who play on structures manufactured recently.

The nationwide survey released Wednesday by the Environmental Working Group and the University of North Carolina-Asheville strongly challenges the government's recent assertion that older playground equipment, decks and outdoor furniture made of arsenic-treated lumber pose less of a threat than newer, similarly treated wood products that are being phased out.

For example, an 8-year-old residential deck in Irvington, N.Y., was found to contain 25 times the amount of arsenic currently allowed in a glass of drinking water under federal Safe Drinking Water Act standards. Decks, playsets and picnic tables at least 7 years old are as likely to have very high amounts of arsenic on the wood surface as are newer equipment and structures.

"Arsenic levels don't decline with the age of the wood," said Jane Houlihan, a vice president of the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research organization.

Last February, the Environmental Protection Agency and the chemical and home-improvement industries announced a two-year phaseout of the use of an arsenic-based preservative in pressure-treated wood that is widely used for fences, decks, playground equipment and boardwalks.

Arsenic is a known human carcinogen, and the EPA is studying whether children who repeatedly come in contact with the preservative -- known as chromated copper arsenate or CCA -- face a heightened risk of developing cancer of the lungs, bladder or skin, as some environmental and consumer groups contend.

While stressing that people should take precautions such as washing their hands after coming into contact with CCA-laced wood and never placing food directly on a deck or outdoor table surface, the EPA said it "does not believe there is any reason to remove or replace arsenic-treated structures, including decks or playground equipment."

Yet the new study said there is no scientific basis to the EPA's assertion. It said there is ample evidence that older, arsenic-treated wood structures are as dangerous as the newer products being phased out.

Over 90 percent of all outdoor wooden structures in the United States are made with arsenic-treated lumber. Using wipe tests from 263 decks, playsets, picnic tables and sandboxes in 45 states, researchers found that arsenic levels on wood surfaces remain high for 20 years -- the entire useful life of the wood.

Young children who come in contact with arsenic-treated wood at playgrounds or backyards can swallow traces of the leached arsenic by placing their unwashed hands or fingers in their mouths or by eating food that has been placed directly on a picnic table or deck.

The Environmental Working Group tested wood surfaces in 263 households for arsenic. In about one quarter of the samples, the amount of arsenic wiped off the wood surface was at least three times the 10 micrograms that is the most allowed in a liter of drinking water under a new EPA standard.

In some samples, the amount -- collected from an area about the size of a child's two hands -- was up to 250 micrograms, the group said.

Structures more than 20 years old and less than a year old showed similar results, the report found.

Source: Washingon Post