Only in The News; An LPN exclusive: Pressure-treated wood at playground could pose a risk to children

HEATHER SACKETT, News Staff Writer
LAKE PLACID — The expansive, castle-style wooden playground at the Lake Placid Elementary School has turrets, swinging bridges, tunnels, walkways, a sandbox and slides — everything a kid could want at recess. It could also contain trace amounts of arsenic, a potentially carcinogenic chemical.

In the past, many outdoor wooden structures — decks, stairs, sandboxes — were constructed with “pressure-treated” lumber treated with chromated-copper arsenate (CCA). CCA is an insecticide that is 22 percent pure arsenic, meant to extend the life of the wood by protecting it against termites and fungus.

But, in 2002, New York state prohibited the construction of structures on public playgrounds made with CCA-treated lumber and required that public picnic tables and playground structures made with it be sealed to minimize the leaching of chemicals.

As of Jan. 1, 2004, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned the use of CCA-treated wood for residential structures, including playgrounds, decks, picnic tables, landscaping timbers, fencing, patios and walkways/boardwalks.

According to test results from a samples taken by the Lake Placid News, the pressure-treated wooden playground is leaching arsenic, a substance the EPA says is a poison in high doses and a known human carcinogen in lower ones.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a consumer health-related research group out of Washington, D.C. that analyzes home test-kit results, estimates that a 40-pound child who plays daily on arsenic-treated wood could be exposed to five times the arsenic allowed under the EPA’s drinking water standard of 10 parts per billion.

The results of samples collected from the playset and the surrounding soil were analyzed by the Environmental Quality Institute, a research institute affiliated with the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Wipes taken from a handrail and a tunnel entrance floor had arsenic levels of 1 and 5.9 micrograms of arsenic per meter, respectively. This means that up to 1 in 10,000 children touching and playing in this area regularly can be expected to develop lung or bladder cancer over their lifetime, according to the EQI.

Soil samples taken from a sandbox in the middle of the playset and another taken 10 feet from the playground had arsenic levels of 4.7 and 4.8 milligrams per kilogram, respectively. This means that up to 1 in 100,000 children touching and playing in this area regularly can be expected to develop lung or bladder cancer over their lifetime.

Diane Morgan, lab manager for the Environmental Quality Institute, said the results were low compared to other samples the institute receives, going as far as to say the 1 microgram of arsenic found on the handrail doesn’t necessarily indicate the sample came from pressure-treated wood.

“You’re very low,” she said. “I get them in the 100s.”

Still, Morgan said, the other sample from the tunnel entrance floor indicates that parts of the structure need to be resealed.

“Arsenic is a carcinogen, and we don’t need unnecessary exposure to that element.”



A difficult risk

to measure

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission agrees that exposure to arsenic in pressure-treated wood might increase a person’s risk of developing lung or bladder cancer over a lifetime. This risk is further increased for children, who have a tendency to put their hands, which may have arsenic residue from a playground, in their mouths.

According to Dale Kemery, spokesman for the EPA, the reference dose for inorganic (not naturally occuring) arsenic is very low — .0003 miligrams per kilograms of body weight per day. A reference dose is the amount the EPA says can be safely consumed on a daily basis over a lifetime without adverse effects on a person.

Although consuming more than the reference dose could put an individual at risk for developing cancer, Kemery said it’s nearly impossible to estimate that risk.

“We can’t say what an unsafe level is as far as developing disease symptoms are concerned,” he said. “(Scientists) can’t evaluate exposure to a carcinogen and possible onset of disease. Everyone is different. You can’t say that any two situations are identical.”

Kemery added that arsenic accumulates in the body over time, so a person who continually ingests it is at greater risk than someone who does so occasionally.

Officials from the state and Essex County departments of heath and the state Department of Environmental Conservation declined to be interviewed for this story, saying they couldn’t comment on the specific results obtained by the Lake Placid News. They did say, however, that their organizations subscribe to the same above-mentioned guidelines and recommendations for CCA-treated wood outlined by the EPA.



Pressure-treated wood should be sealed

properly

Although the EPA doesn’t recommend tearing down CCA-treated structures, it does say they need to be sealed regularly, something Lake Placid school district officials say they’ve been doing.

According to Elementary School Principal Rick Retrosi, the last time the playground was sealed was in September 2006 with a “clear, water-based wood sealant.” He said that the sealant, purchased from Wolman Care Wood Products, of Somerset, N.J., carries a three-year warranty. The sealant was applied by the district’s maintenance staff.

“Prior to any kind of sealing, we go over the playground with a fine-tooth comb and take sanding equipment and sand it smooth to prevent splinters,” Retrosi said. “We do that at least three times a year.”

But officials from Wolman say that the sealant the school uses, called RainCoat, is meant to prevent water damage, mildew, warping and cracking, not arsenic leaching. According to the technical data sheet for the RainCoat product, the three-year warranty only applies to water damage. It does not mention chemical leaching. Wolman’s Web site recommends using an oil-based sealant to reduce the amount of preservative chemicals released by the wood.

Retrosi, who has been principal of the elementary school for a decade, said he has never fielded any complaints or concerns regarding the CCA-treated wooden playground.

But Laura Haight, a senior environmental associate with the New York Public Interest Research Group, based in Albany, said the concern surrounding children’s exposure to the chemical is real.

“Sealing it once every three years is totally inadequate,” she said. “They should be sealing it at least annually and maybe more, considering how much weathering takes place up in the Adirondacks.”

The playground, a community volunteer effort dubbed “Project Playground” when it was constructed in 1989, is almost 20 years old, but Haight said it’s not uncommon for arsenic to continue leaching out of wood for many years.

“The biggest concern is the direct contact children will be having with it,” she said. “Some parents will sort of shrug off that risk, but it is a concern.”

She said the most common way children absorb the chemical is through their hands and contact between their hands and mouth.



Legitimate or

unfounded concerns?

Lake Placid School District Superintendent James Donnelly said he would like the district to conduct its own tests and evaluations through its engineering firm before taking any action.

“It’s finding a balance between responding to legitimate concerns versus unfounded fears,” he said. “It really comes down to three things: Is it bad for kids, is there something better for kids, and what is the cost-benefit?”

Donnelly, who took over as superintendent from Ernie Stretton in June, agreed with Retrosi that there is no evidence of anyone expressing concern over the playground.

Haight said, to be safe, the right thing for the district to do is to tear down the structure.

“The best they could do would be to remove it and replace it with safer materials,” she said. “It’s a dangerous chemical, and children are very susceptible. They are still growing and coming into direct contact with these chemicals. It is something they should take seriously.”

Haight added that since arsenic is a naturally occurring chemical in the soil, there is no way to tell for certain if the soil samples that were tested turned up arsenic that was already present in the soil or if it came from the playground. She said by replacing the soil around the playground with new soil, subsequent testing could determine if it was pre-existing arsenic.



A common issue

nationwide

Lake Placid is not the first community facing this issue. Towns and cities all over the state and country, including the cities of Albany and Buffalo, as well as public playgrounds in Florida, have removed CCA-treated wooden play structures after testing was conducted. The issue has also been the topic of investigative stories by the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends that children wash their hands after playing on a CCA-treated wooden playset and that they shouldn’t eat on CCA-treated structures such as picnic tables without putting a tablecloth down first. CCA-treated wood should never be burned.