How to Safely Deal With Arsenic Treated Wood Items
Information is coming out periodically concerning environmental dangers related to what were once commonly used additives like lead in paint. According to author Celeste Perron who writes about health, style and green living, arsenic treated wood decks and play sets present a potential danger, as well. The Environmental Protection Agency banned the manufacture and sale of arsenic-treated wood for most uses after evidence emerged that the wood could cause cancer in humans. Make your backyard safe from the dangers of arsenic-treated wood, commonly used to make wood decks, plays sets, and even tree houses. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Determine if your deck or your child's play set was manufactured before 2004. Before that date wood was commonly treated with arsenic as a preservative, although no one know why. If you cannot find out when the items, or the wood was purchased, you can toss them out and get a new deck or playset, or take other precautions to protect your family from any danger.
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Have your child thoroughly wash his hands when he comes inside from playing out in the yard. Your child could ingest arsenic by touching pre-treated wood items or the dirt under a playset or deck, and then putting his hands to his mouth.
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Do not use pressurized water from a water hose nozzle or allow a professional company to clean your deck or playset with water under high pressure. You could release the arsenic in the wood with pressurized water.
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Do not burn the wood from a deck, playset, wood shed or treehouse if you decide to tear it down. Burning can cause the arsenic in the wood to be released into the air.
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Paint your deck, child's playset, wooden privacy fence (if it was put up before 2004), and other outdoor wooden items with latex paint or polyurethene to seal the wood according to the Environmental Working Group, a non profit organization devoted to reducing the levels of chemicals in the environment.
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Tips & Warnings
Purchase a reliable test kit from Environmental Working Group (see Resources below).
Resources
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