Playground Protection

Playground Protection

by Robyn Seydel

Like most kids, recess was one of my favorite times at school. And judging from the faces I see on the playground at area schools, I don't think that much has changed since then.

However, a new report released by the researchers at the Environmental Working Group (EWG) in Washington D.C. sheds light on what could be a disturbing wrinkle in playground fun.

Over the last few decades, administrators and designers have taken to using "pressure treated" wood, in an effort to create a less institutional look.

Natural in appearance only, the wood has been injected with vast amounts of toxic compounds to preserve it and kill termites and other insect pests.

EWG points out that the most common wood preservative used in the U.S. is chromated copper arsenate (CCA), an insecticide that is 22 % pure arsenic.

Laboratory and field studies definitely show that arsenic in CCA leaches out of pressure treated lumber in potentially hazardous quantities where it may be ingested or absorbed by people (through the skin) and animals or contaminate water or soil (for more information go to www.ewg.org and access their Chemical Industry Archives, for the Arsenic and Old Lies Report).

While the EPA is working hard to protect children from ever- increasing arsenic levels in water supplies (a big issue here in Albuquerque as we use ever lower levels of our aquifer) it must regulate pressure treated wood as a source of arsenic that could be even more pervasive.

Based on national data from 180 wood samples EWG estimates that a 40-pound child that plays daily on arsenic treated wood could be exposed to more than five times the arsenic allowed under EPA proposed drinking water standard (a new lower standard whose implementation has, of course, been delayed by
the Bush administration) and an average five-year-old, in less than two weeks would exceed the lifetime cancer risk considered acceptable.

The calculated risks are as high as 1 in 1,000, with standard risk assessment models using 1 in 1 million as the acceptable risk level.

As Albuquerque is one of the nation's cities that has arsenic in its water supply (about 10% of the nation's water systems do), our children could be getting a double dose.

Arsenic, classified as a "known human carcinogen" by the EPA and the World Health Organization, puts children at greater risk as they are less able to metabolize the metal.

While a U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission 1990 study deems pressure treated wood "safe," the EWG analysis shows that it is seriously flawed, underestimating arsenic contamination and exposure, failing to account for evidence linking arsenic to internal cancers, failing to account for new evidence that arsenic is an endocrine-disrupting chemical, and failing to recognize that children metabolize arsenic less efficiently than adults.

EWG is calling for an immediate ban by the Consumer Product Safety Commission of all CCA treated wood, emergency suspension by the EPA of CCA as a wood treatment pesticide, prompt repeal of the Congressional exemption for arsenic treated wood as a hazardous waste product, and a boycott of CCA treated wood by the construction industry, especially in all situations in which children might come in to contact with the wood.

Parents and teachers are urged to make sure children wash hands after playing on CCA treated wood, particularly before eating, and to let children eat at CCA treated picnic tables only when a plastic coated tablecloth is in use.

Seal CCA treated wood surfaces with polyurethane or other hard lacquer each year.

The Arsenic Index by the Healthy Building Network

• Micrograms of arsenic allowed per liter of drinking water: Clinton proposed new law 10

• Micrograms of arsenic allowed per liter of drinking water: current law 50

• Micrograms found to cause endocrine system disruption: 25-50

• Micrograms found in 15 square inches of pressure treated playground equipment: up to 632

• Micrograms of arsenic ingested by children per visit to "pressure treated" wood playground estimated to 630

• Amount of arsenic legally allowed on the surface of playground equipment: unlimited

• Estimate of arsenic used for wood products since 1964: 550 million pounds; in 1996 alone: 30 million pounds