Healthy Building Network

www.healthybuilding.net

 

For Immediate Release:                                Feb. 10, 2003

 

For More Information:                                   Jeanette McCulloch or Carl Vogel,

Valerie Denney Communications,

312-408-2580

 

                                                                        Paul Bogart  (206) 718-1394 (m)

                                                                        Bill Walsh    (301) 728-6916 (m)

                                                                        Healthy Building Network

 

 

Consumer Product Safety Commission Finds Pressure Treated Wood Increases Risk Of Cancer In Children

 

Report Goes Further Than EPA, But Stops Short of Necessary Measures

 

WASHINGTON D.C. – In response to a petition filed by the Healthy Building Network in May 2001, the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a report on Friday, February 7, 2003 . that concludes that children who play on playsets made of the most commonly used pressure treated wood product are at increased risk of cancer.  This latest finding by the CPSC flatly contradicts current EPA statements that the commonly used treated wood poses no health risks to children.

 

"This study confirms what people outside the CPSC have suspected and studies have shown -- that arsenic leaches from this kind of pressure-treated wood and there's a risk associated with it for people who use it," said Paul Bogart,  who directed of the Healthy Building Network’s arsenic treated wood phase-out campaign

 

More than 90% of all current wooden playsets and decks made from treated wood

are made with a formula known as CCA, a blend of copper, chromium and arsenic. This formula is also widely used on residential decks. It is estimated that more than 7 billion board feet of arsenic wood are currently in service in the United States alone.  Last year the EPA and the wood treatment industry agreed to voluntarily phase out most consumer uses of CCA lumber.  At that time, the EPA pronounced existing decks and playsets safe.  The agreement does not cover what the industry calls “industrial uses,” which account for about 15% of  treated wood sales. 

 

The Healthy Building Network did criticize the CPSC for failing to recommend action to protect children in light of these findings.  “It is irresponsible for the CPSC to reach the conclusion that children who play on arsenic treated wood decks face a significantly higher risk of cancer, and then recommend deferring action on the issue until the EPA finishes a voluntary agreement with industry." Bogart said.

 

HBN also calls for the commission to turn its attention to an even larger source of childhood arsenic exposures: residential decks and picnic tables, "The fact that the CPSC has restricted their conclusions to arsenic treated playsets doesn't make any sense, a child's body doesn't differentiate between the arsenic they get from their deck or their picnic table, and the arsenic from a playground," Bogart said.