Safety concerns cut down treated lumber used by millions

USA Today ^ | 28 Dec 03 | Peter Eisler

[SLB]

In three days, the pressure-treated lumber used for millions of backyard decks, fences and play sets will head into extinction, its production halted because its arsenic-laced preservatives are considered a cancer risk.

No one is ready for what comes next.

[SLB]

Commnets?

[SLB]

A new black market in the making?

[Fred Mertz]

Plastic decking?

[EggsAckley]

Our local planning dept. FORCED this stuff on us a while back. I'm NOT about to tear down the new decks and the granny unit to remove it. Stupid science is what stupid does, or something like that.

[baltodog]

Unbelieveable!!!
There goes the deck around my fire-pit, the trellaces for the garden, the stairs leading up to my attic.
This stuff is going to cost a million bucks come springtime.
Did my tax dollars actually pay someone money to make this study?
EVERYTHING causes cancer. We should know that by now. 150 years ago, they called it OLD AGE!!!

[bigfootbob]

Ridiculous. Let's quit breathing air, it's too damned dangerous.

[Diddle E. Squat]

The arsenic in CCA-treated wood is linked to bladder, liver and lung cancer. A draft EPA study issued last month found that the lifetime risk of an arsenic-related cancer for children who play frequently on CCA-treated structures could be as high as one in 100,000 — 10 times the one-in-a-million threshold the agency usually considers to be a significant public health threat.

1 in 100,000 (maybe)? At such a minute fraction, how the heck can they have any certainty in isolating and determining that this product is the cause of those few cancer cases, rather than other factors?

[Petronski]

Well, it is pressure-saturated with arsenic.

[SLB]

Plastic decking?

Lowe's and Home Depot have been selling it for several years. The price is at least 50% greater for plastic.

[microgood]

We will have to kill a lot more trees now as decks and outdoor fixtures will last about a third or less as long. Much more costly for businesses and homeowners.

[HamiltonJay]

Yep, already on the market, fiberglass, plastic epoxies etc.... there are other pressure treatments that aren't CCA as well... Government flubbed this one as usual, but hardly a situation where there will be no options.

[microgood]

Plastic decking?

Usually it is the structural components of decks that are pressure treated more than the decking surface itself. These structural components will need replacing much more often.

[1Old Pro]

This is ridiculous. The wood is only harmful if you eat 20 2x4's a day for 100 years.

[Blood of Tyrants]

One in 100,000 LIFETIME risk? Jeez, you have a bigger chance of being killed in a car accident in a week!

[ikka]

One dld-time method was to burn the outer part of the wood, using a larger size piece of wood to allow for the decrease in strength. The carbon around the outside of the wood would act as a preservative. So insted of 4x4 you use 6x6 and burn the outer half-inch of wood.

I also see to recall the use of creosote as well.

[fso301]

Our tax dollars at waste.

[Bluntpoint]

I'm working on a camel that can eat sawdust and sh@t pressure treated 2X4s.

[Squantos]

Sound like a decision set in concrete...........:o)

More incrementalism from those that won't cure cancer yet they take more from us to try and make us believe the want to prevent cancer. All this from a society that drives on asphalt, oils the edge of roads for weed control yet fines it's citizens if we accidently spill some while changing our earl in the family cruiser becaue oil is a carcinogen . All bout the all might buck. Nothing more IMO.

Stay Safe !

[BlueLancer]

Møøse are easier to work with ... and will drink polyurethane while eating the sawdust to give your treated lumber a nice sealant and shine.

[Fabozz]

"I also see to recall the use of creosote as well."

Creosote is also carcinogenic and also banned.