Word: woode
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Doctors admit that no one knows precisely what concentrations of environmental arsenic are toxic, and the wood-treatment industry insists that wherever that line is, its products don't cross it. Environmental groups, however, disagree, insisting that at any dosage level, children and arsenic don't mix. Says Richard Wiles, pesticide director for the nonprofit Environmental Working Group: "We've pretty much set up an arsenic delivery system for kids...
...signs for their displays. At the same time, the Consumer Product Safety Commission agreed to ask for public comments on petitions that could lead to an outright ban of CCA. In Florida, dozens of playgrounds have been shut down, and Governor Jeb Bush has ordered a state-run wood-treatment plant to switch to another preservative. While adults wrestle with the politics of the problem, however, it's kids who may be paying the ultimate price...
...scientists investigating arsenic, the numbers are sobering. Ninety-eight percent of outdoor wood sold in the U.S. is treated with CCA. In Florida alone, nearly 30,000 tons of arsenic are believed to be at large. Investigators testing soil in the state's playgrounds have found arsenic levels far higher than hazardous-waste experts consider safe. Prolonged exposure can lead to nerve damage, dizziness and numbness, as well as increased risk of bladder, lung and skin cancer...
...fact that the government has gone so easy on arsenic is, according to critics, a testament to the political muscle of the $4 billion-a-year wood-treatment industry. The industry counters that it has been left alone because it deserves to be--and the case it makes has some merit. If CCA were as deadly as some say, factory workers who make the stuff and carpenters who work with it ought to be falling ill in droves. Yet no one reports a measurable increase in disease among these groups. "Certainly, if there were a danger, it would show...
Whatever CCA's ultimate fate, the existing problem will probably be with us for a long time. Even when a playground is torn down, the wood must still be disposed of--not an easy thing to do. Dumping it in an unlined landfill allows arsenic to seep underground. Mulching it scatters CCA on the surface. And burning it fills the air with toxic smoke. Leaving the structures to disintegrate on their own could take a while. CCA is such an effective preservative that those pressure-treated wooden forts and castles might still be standing a generation from now. In retrospect...