Poisoned Playgrounds - Shocking Playground Soil Test Results
Click
Here to Add Comment Subject:
Poisoned Playgrounds - Shocking Playground Soil Test Results
Date:
Sat, 9 Nov 2002 08:44:38 -0500
From:
Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide
Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman
whitman.christine@epa.gov
cc: clearance@inl.co.nz
Poisoned Playgrounds
SATURDAY, 09 NOVEMBER 2002
By CHRIS MIRAMS Shocking playground soil test results have led to fresh calls for the banning of arsenic-treated wood.
Soil tests in children's play areas have found arsenic leaching from treated timber play equipment at levels between two and 10 times above government guidelines.
The Government has now been urged to follow the United States, Canada and other countries and ban arsenic-treated wood.
The wood - some of it better known by the brand name Tanalised timber - has been used industrially and in playgrounds, homes and outdoor furniture in New Zealand for 50 years.
But it now looms as an environmental disaster, leaking poisonous arsenic into soil and waterways.
The arsenic comes from chromated copper arsenate - known as CCA - which is a pesticide used to preserve wood for use outdoors.
Arsenic is a recognised carcinogenic and can cause nerve, stomach, intestine and skin problems. Small levels can be contracted by touching treated wood or contaminated soil but there is conflicting data on the quantities required to affect humans.
The Dominion Post employed scientists to test soil from Wellington playgrounds that used CCA timber.
The guidelines of the ministries of health and environment are the same - 30 milligrams per kilogram - for residential and agricultural areas.
Karori's Ben Burn Park had arsenic levels of 290mg/kg and 300mg/kg from samples taken five centimetres and 18cm below the surface - 10 times the Ministry of Environment guidelines. Khandallah playground had a level of 270mg/kg near the surface, while Shorland Park in Island Bay had levels of 52mg/kg near the surface and 65mg/kg at 18cm.
Germany, Sweden and Japan have banned CCA timber. In February, the US reached agreement with timber merchants to phase out CCA timber by the end of 2003. It was immediately banned from domestic use.
Canada followed suit in April and the European Union is considering a report from scientists that "identified unacceptable risks to children's health" from CCA wood.
Michael Beasley, a medical toxicologist at the National Poisons Centre in Dunedin, said a safety-first approach was prudent.
"For playground equipment, it would be a sensible precaution not to use it," he said.
"While there is no proof that it actually is absorbed, one has to consider the possibility."
Environmental toxicologist Jeff Fowles, of the Institute of Environmental Science and Research, said the unknown elements of CCA-treated timber was cause for concern.
"If those jurisdictions are deciding to ban it or phase it out, they have to have good reasons and we should look at it here, too."
Wellington City Council spokesman Richard McLean said: "Our advice from medical experts is that you would have to eat a lot of soil to get sick." He said, however, that the council's awareness of the CCA issue had played a part in the review of playgrounds and the decision to phase out "old-style wooden ones".
CCA timber makes up between 15 and 20 per cent of timber production for leading suppliers Carter Holt and Fletcher Challenge Forests.
Carter Holt's chief operating officer, Devon McLean, said his company saw no need to withdraw it.
"All of the information and assurances (from chemical manufacturers) have led us to say this is the most appropriate chemical where the wood needs to be preserved."
© You may not copy, republish or distribute this page or the content from it without having obtained written permission from the copyright owner. To enquire about copyright clearances contact clearance@inl.co.nz
If you would like to be included in our mailing list for continuing information on pesticides, please email us at list@safe2use.com.