"Good Housekeeping" magazine recently published a disturbing article relating the experience of a family in Ottawa, ONT., Canada. For weeks, in 2002, they had suffered from multiple varying symptoms including nausea, diarrhea, dizziness, burning eyes, and throats. They saw multiple doctors but none were able to diagnose their symptoms or offer them any help.

A few weeks into the puzzling illness that plagued the family, mother Michele, awoke in the middle of the night to check on their six-year-old daughter, Tessa, and found her babbling incoherantly in her bed. "Momma, da-da-da-da-da," like a baby. This was “a girl who had learned to talk early, and was reading before she even started school”. Terrified, they rushed her to the doctor again. Though her speech had returned to normal by morning, the episode was quickly followed by a series of frightening seizures, one after the other.

In the following weeks the family’s symptoms worsened to include terrible coughs, rashes over their bodies, burning and numbness in their hands and feet, and extreme exhaustion. Little Tessa was repeatedly hospitalized for her symptoms. Still, it would be months before they learned the source of the symptoms that were plaguing them.

During this time visitors to their house began to complain of feeling head-achy and sick after being there only a short time. This finally led them to wonder if there was something wrong with their new air-conditioning system. Wondering if this could be the source of their illness as well, they had a repairman come to inspect the system.

After crawling beneath the deck to inspect the unit, he came to report to Michele that the air-conditioning unit was fine, but he was very concerned about the "green puddles" under the deck. He explained to her that they were formed by rain water leeching the chemicals from her deck onto the ground below, and that it was the worst he'd seen.

Michele immediately realized that this must be the source of their months-long illness. Accordingly, their doctor quickly referred them to a medical pathologist, who soon attributed their apparently random symptoms to "acute arsenic poisoning". After a visit to their home himself, he indeed determined that the source of their arsenic poisoning was the lumber that their brand-new outdoor deck was constructed of.

Michelle was so angered that she dove into her own investigation. She subsequently learned that this same kind of lumber could be found, at the time, in 90% of all similar wooden structures throughout the U.S and Canada, and this spurred her into action.

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Known as CCA lumber, (Chromated Copper Arsenate), it is made by soaking the boards in a high-pressure tank full of water, which is mixed with huge quantities of chromium, copper, and arsenic. The process forces and infuses the chemicals deep into the wood, and is meant to preserve and protect it from insect infestation, bacteria, and wood rot. However, what kills the insects is also toxic and even deadly to people too.

Even more frightening, she learned, was that this same kind of lumber is used in the construction of playground equipment and structures in countless back yards, public parks, and school-yards across all of North America, and indeed the world. She further learned that there are still an estimated 70 million American homes with some sort of deck, porch, or structure made of CCA lumber in their yard.

Arsenic is a well-known poisonous chemical element. Exposure to it, even in small amounts, is proven to cause everything from cancer to brain damage, and even death.

Chromium can also be another powerful poison with its own list of dangerous and even deadly affects. It is probably best known as the chemical responsible for contaminating the town’s water supply in the truth-based movie, "Erin Brockovich".

This wood, when fairly new is easily identifiable by its greenish (or reddish) tint. As the wood ages, it turns gray, but the chemicals permeate the wood so deeply that the risk of exposure never goes away.

Both of these dangerous chemicals can be absorbed through your children's skin, or ingested by them putting their hands in their mouth and/or eating after playing and failing to wash their hands. Additionally, the chemicals are leeched by rain water from the wood and into the soil around the equipment. So even if your child is only playing around the equipment, they are at risk of exposure.

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The lumber industry is still quick to downplay the risks to children and points out that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the CPSC (Consumer Products Safety Commission) never took regulatory action against them.

However, it is interesting to note that they only came up with an alternative treatment solution after the EPA and CPSC began health assessments of CCA wood. Most of the wood now sold is treated with a copper based mixture that so far appears to be safer to humans.

Manufacture of CCA wood for theresidential marketwas completely halted in December of 2003. However, it is still manufactured and available to the industrial/commercial market; meaning that CCA wood may still be used in structures used by the public.

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In a study published last November in the prestigious medical journal, The Lancet, Dr. Phillip J. Landrigan, professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, says that exposure to arsenic, even in low doses, can significantly increase your child’s risk for bladder, lung, and skin cancers.

Included in that study was a list of 202 industrial chemicals that he believes are contributing to a world-wide ”silent pandemic” of brain damage and neuro-developmental disorders such as autism, ADD, and mental retardation. Of the 202 chemicals on the list, Dr. Landrigan says that, “arsenic ranks very high on the list in terms of these concerns”.

The EPA has since issued a draft preliminary report looking at the possible cancer threat posed to children by CCA wood still in use across the country. The data collected by one environmental watchdog group suggests that as many as 90% of American children face an unacceptable lifetime cancer risk from CCA wood.

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So what can you do to protect your children now and minimize their future exposure? This link has information you need to know about arsenic, and offers instructions on how to remove the risks from your own home. Arsenic & CCA Wood

The site points out, not surprisingly, that it is illegal to burn CCA wood in all 50 states. Incredibly, a single 12' x 2” x 6” board has enough arsenic in it to kill 200 adults, and a single tablespoon of CCA wood ash contains enough arsenic to kill an adult human.

The salty taste of the ash poses an additional risk to livestock and wildlife animals alike because they are naturally attracted to the taste of salt. The site points to the case of a Minnesota couple who lost 18 of their Holstien dairy cows when they broke through a fence and ingested CCA ash from a pile that was illegally dumped near their property.

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This may be old news to some, but I think it bears repeating as a reminder to parents out there. If these structures are in your children’s playgrounds or school yards, become an advocate! Take an active role in pressing the schools and parks in your area to remove this equipment as well as the soil around it. Insist that the soil, sand, or material the equipment sets in be replaced to a depth of at least 2', and that the equipment be replaced with a safer alternative, such as pesticide free cedar or redwood, or even recycled-plastic composite lumber.

Don’t wait for someone else to sound the alarms, or for our government to step in and mandate the removal of this equipment. Your children are at risk with every exposure, no matter how small. Chances are if the equipment in question was built between 1977 and the end of 2003, it contains arsenic. The only way to be sure is to test it.

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For additional helpful information, inlcuding where and how to order test kits to test any questionable equipment your children may be exposed to please use the links below:

To order a test kit:
http://www.ewg.org/reports/poisonwoodrivals/orderform.php?fromhost=safe2play

For instructions on the removal and disposal of affected equipment from your home or other areas; or if removal is not feasible, precautions you can and should employ until such a time as the equipment can be removed: http://www.safe2play.org/documents.html or
http://www.ewg.org/issues/arsenic/10tips.php

For a checklist to use to follow up on the equipment at your child's school, or any other playgrounds they may visit; how to have it tested and removed; the right questions to ask, who to talk to, and what to demand of whom:
http://www.safe2play.org/assets/docs/safetychecklist.pdf

Source article: Good Housekeeping/March 2007 by Virginia Sole-Smith

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