Just in case you thought that you'd thought of it all, consider the folowing:

Arsenic causes cancer (this I know from the various reports that I've been hearing), and it also causes all kinds of other ailments, including the BIG ONE (death). Think that you're relatively safe from arsenic poisoning because you've got a well or a really clean water supply?

How about the following three step AHA! logic -

1. Is anyone building in your general vicinity? Recently, there was an article hear in NC about the absolutely terrible job that contractors were doing of preventing soil run off into streams during building, and I highly doubt that we're the only ones.

2. Arsenic does its worst when ingested, but also can be inhaled. 3. There is enough arseninc in a pressure treated, 12' 2x12 to kill 250 people if ingested directly.

Okay, let's add them up. Fine sawdust from decks, ground contact wooden structures, and other similar objects. Add wind and silt erosion into streams and water supplies. Got you thinking yet? Good, I guess I can go to bed now! Sweet dreams!

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), March 29, 2001

Answers

Response to Arsenic poisoning

A contractor friend of ours warned us not to burn the stuff either. The heavy metals remain in the ashes, which then get dumped on the garden!

-- David C (fleece@eritter.net), March 29, 2001.

Response to Arsenic poisoning

And people let their kids and babies sit out on decks made of that junk, with direct skin contact (the pressure treated lumber, I mean). I'm into Trex!!

I understand that there is a pressure treated lumber company in Wisconsin that is making rot proofed lumber without the arsenic and heavy metals...my sister knows their address, I think.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), March 30, 2001.

The good news in all of this is STUPIDITY KILLS. Helps eliminate the lower end of the gene pool.

-- Lynn Goltz (lynngoltz@aol.com), March 30, 2001.

Haha Lynn, that's great. That needs to be on a bumper sticker!

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), March 30, 2001.

But the end result is the stupid people are not the ones who usually get hurt .Its the children or pets , or the people who just bought the house and have no idea .Treated wood has its place , we used it on the underside of are deck .The top boards and railing {anything that can be touched }.

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), March 30, 2001.

Maybe stupidity can kill, but if you don't know the poison is there you don't have the information to make an informed decision. Last time I looked, the lumber didn't have a warning attached. The best option I see is to use cedar posts, which don't need treatment.

-- David C (fleece@eritter.net), March 30, 2001.

Glad I moved out of the burbs!!! Know how much building of additions and decks and all that goes on in a couple square blocks?

I like David's suggestion. Seems simple enough...

Some food for thought:

Many forms of rock contain arsenic... It naturally occurs in drinking water. If this run-off adds to the problem... Who is safe?

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), March 30, 2001.

glad i am building my patio out of cement . Indiana Country friend Jack Bunyard

-- jack bunyard (bunyard@cnz.com), March 31, 2001.

My source also noted that either a tsp or a Tbsp, can't remember which, or the ashes, is enough to do in one person. I think they meant ingested, but possibly inhaled, although I think that inhaling a tsp of anything would probably kill most folks!

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), March 31, 2001.

We bought a house a few years ago, tried livng closer to town, that lasted a year. Anyway there was a rotting deck on the back 16X24' it had been built from Doug Fir, and it was probably 20 years old, I save some of the 2x12s and many 16' 2x6s. when I rebuilt the decj tho, I used Red Cedar, not only did it look nice but I was not afraid to walk on it bare-footed. The lumber was spendy but then again I did not have to keep sealing it every 6 month to a year. Treated lumber is mostly poor quality material to start with. I do use a lot of treated fence posts and 4x4s but had not thought about them leaching into my well. We have 10 4x2x10' raise beds but they are build from Redwood.

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweb.net), April 01, 2001.

Use a pressure treated wood which does not contain arsenic: Several pressure treated wood formulations which do not contain arsenic are available right now. Your lumberyard may carry these under the trade names of "ACQ" or "Kodiak Wood", or they may be listed as preserved with ACQ (Ammoniacial Copper Quaternary), copper azole and/or copper citrate. All are arsenic-free and effective against rot and insects: the US EPA says they are safe, and the American Wood Preservers Association says they work. If your lumberyard does not stock these, they can order them. You might be interested to know that these are the wood-preservation formulas used in Japan and Europe, where CCA treated wood is banned.

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), April 01, 2001.

Julie's sister finally showing up. Earthmamma saved me having to post the information, though. ACQ is what Julie was talking about. You can do a web search on "ACQ" if you want to find out more about it or find dealers.

I, like Julie, am interested in the composites made out of recycled plastic (some have "waste wood" ground up and incorporated and will even weather to grey as does "real wood").

-- Joy F (So.Central Wisconsin) (CatFlunky@excite.com), April 02, 2001.

i need any information that may be available about arsenic exposure from treated lumber. i help to run a wildlife rehabilitation center and we beleive that our fawns and baby racoons are suffering from arsenic poisoning. we recently completed a new racoon habitat and repaired stockade fencing surrounding the deer. we have never encountered the problem before with any of the habitats that were built in the past. veterinary tests are not yet complete.

-- lauri ann wallace (laurianw@gateway.net), July 28, 2001.

Animals are less susceptable to CCA toxins than humans. None the less several zoos have banned the use of CCA treated lumber. The Bronx Zoo comes to mind and there are a many internet sources using Google.

Children are the most susceptable to arsenic poisioning. Adults are better able to metabolize arsenic using a bodily process called methalation into a less toxic form.

soni, the amount of arsenic in one tablespoon of CCA ashes is enough to be fatal to 27 humans.

Whenever i can i choose to use a AERT product distributed by Wareheauser called ChoiceDek. IMO it is easily the best of the composite decking/lumber products having the longest warranty and best track record, It is made of 50% recycled plastic and 50% recycled heartwood cedar shavings from the aroma industry. Completely inert with no splintering, termite damage, or rot even when submerged in docks.

-- Victor (ledoso@hotmail.com), August 10, 2001.

Looking for information to help a friend. Her mother's neighbor is burning this wood in their fireplace. The neighbors are in poor health and now everyone around them is getting sick. They have pleading with the neighbor even offered free wood if they would just stop. The friend's mother won't have her grandchildren over for free they will get sick from inhaling the stuff.

Thanks

-- Gail Hincz (ghincz@excite.com), January 16, 2002.

Having just read your post Gail, I can assure you that this is a very BAD idea to be burning any of the conventional pressure treated lumber!!!

A local 'homestead' family in our town was burning this, as well as scrap plywood and particle board scrap from the father's work sites. The family kept getting sicker and sicker, increasing trips to the doctors (who were baffled), colds that never left, conjunctivitis, and a host of other symptoms. Then their hair began to fall out.

It eventually got pinpointed to the woodstove and the burning lumber when they started to have to go to the hospital in the ambulence. The family had to leave the premises permanently due to the heavy metal contaminants that were throughout the home, all furnishings, and their possessions from the airborne pollution. The house eventually had to be torn down and taken off to an EPA facility -- it was that toxic.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), January 17, 2002.