Pressure Treated Wood & Lumber

Did you know that over 90% of all outdoor wooden structures in this country are made with arsenic-treated lumber?

In the pressure-treating process, lumber is sealed in a tank, air is extracted, creating a vacuum. Then a solution containing chromium, copper and arsenic ("CCA") is added. Arsenic is a known carcinogen. Actually, arsenic is on the EPA's short list of chemicals known without question to cause cancer in humans.

Nationwide tests found dangerous levels of arsenic "pressure treated" wood purchased at The Home Depot and Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse.

Every other use of arsenic as a pesticide is banned by the EPA. Somehow it was allowed in wood treatment and millions of pounds of CCA a year was injected into the wood that is sold to families across the country.

Arsenic sticks to children's hands when they play on pressure treated wood and is absorbed through their skin and ingested when they put their hands into their mouths. It is estimated that one out of every 500 children who regularly play on swing sets and decks made from arsenic-treated wood, or one child in an average size elementary school will develop lung or bladder cancer later in life as a result of this exposure.

Exposure to pressure treated wood can cause:

• Lung cancer
• Bladder cancer
• Skin cancer
• Kidney cancer
• Prostate cancer
• Cancer in the nasal passages

Additionally, arsenic in pressure treated wood can leach into the soil putting children who play outdoors at incredible risk. For this reason the EPA declared that use of CCA has ended in December of 2003.

Until the lumber is removed from the various playgrounds and homes, the only warning is a small label that warns of the danger.

Homeowners should replace their arsenic-treated decks, swing sets and picnic tables with other alternatives.

You can contact the Munley, Munley & Cartwright law firm for a free consultation:

• Call our law firm from anywhere in the United States toll free at 1-800-318-LAW1. Our phones answer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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