Say Bye Bye to CCA Pressure Treated Wood.

[PhilNH5]

Rubintropfen,
It was Trex which was the only stuff available around here at the time. It wasn't real stiff like dimensional lumber. Had to put the joist 12" apart instead of 16". Deck looks great. And this Trex is slightly textured. Just slippery as all get out when wet. Frost is terrible too!

 

[Anonymous Poster]

In the Rochester NY area, playgrounds are being closed down because Judy Bramin (local consumer safety advocate {freak}) has been retained by a testing company that has a new machine that can sense arsenic in minescule concentrations.
Odd as it may seem, I have yet to see a kid gnawing on a playground post or deck. Even stranger, the same government that is behind all this protecting forces Indians to live on reservations where the water supply contains higher levels of Arsenic than is in the wood when it comes from the pressure treating chamber.
The new demand for plastic planking certainly ought to increase the price for shredded milk bottles and detergent containers.
I guess I just don't have the right perception.

 

[JoeR]

I haven't heard of any children having health problems related to pressure treated lumber. Is the EPA fixing something that isn't broken? I think improperly installed child car seats may be more of a risk...

Joe

P.S. Don't let your children dig holes too closely to your septic drain field. The soil may have high levels of bacteria.

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

JoeR

I too, am unaware of any children who have had problems from treated lumber. I do, however, have a friend I went to High School with who has severe Arsenic poisoning. It is nothing to fool with. He got down to about 98 pounds and has very nearly died.

He got his arsenic from soft drinks, not lumber (his ex was apparently trying not to be a divorcee.) The story is strange but true.

SHF

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

At the levels that treated wood might give to children who eat splinters, there seems to be no data suggesting potential harm. Arsenic can be so bad, however, that I suspect the regulators would rather panic now than later. A close friend of mine died a few years ago when his liver failed, and a liver transplant was unsuccessful. He was in his mid 50's. At age 13, he had actually been treated with arsenic for asthma that the doctors thought would kill him within a few months. He lived more than 40 years, but died of arsenic poisoning.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

The people most at risk are toddlers, it is the same with lead, we do lead removal and meet a lot of kids who have brain damage from eating lead paint chips when they were toddlers. Most people never will get sick from PT wood and I have ate a lot of saw dust while cutting boards and so far show no problems, but I would be the last to know anyways. I have not heard of any kids getting sick but it is probally some lady somewhere saw what chemicals were used in pt wood and threw a fit. The way things are going it is going to be next to impossible to find a contractor with insurance because most insurance companies do not want to insure us anymore, too risky if someone gets sick or injured on a job site. When we went into lead removal our insurance agent dropped us because of the fact we deal with lead. We had to search hard to find another carrier and at a much higher cost so we can stay insured. I hope things settle down in the future as it is getting harder to work for people when you always have to worry about either the neighbor, home owner or tenant wanting to sue you about something no matter how minor. We do a lot of lead removal for our county in low income houses and they are the worse people we have to deal with, they get $30k dollars worth of work done to their house for nothing and they complain to no end that more should be done for free, they don't want us to work on their house either if they are not there and lock the doors when they leave making it hard to get to running water when we need to. The old saying is true though, people who have money are more trusting then those who don't. Later, I have rambled long enough.

 

[poorboy]

What about the fence post and telephone business? I wonder if this will be a total stoppage of the process or just in building materials, which would be bad enough.

Just my luck miles of fence to build and replace the next few years and now a lack of materials. Galvanized wire is also probably dangerous to suck on. Gettin that negative feeling again. I better stop.

Patrick

 

[JoeR]

The government should make us aware of potential hazards, but an equivalent alternative should be found before eliminating the PT wood. There are many uses of PT wood in homes, in which children would not be able to access. Around 1981-1982 the EPA banned the use of Chlordane for Termite treatment. Now an inferior product is used, which has led to major termite problems. Chlordane lasted 15+ years, while the new treatment lasts only 5 years. Which is worse? Applying a less dangerous chemical more often?/w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif It seems exposure would be greater since treatment would be more frequent. Better living through chemistry has taken a new meaning for us. Many of us have wells, therefore, some of us have galvenized pipes which carry our drinking water. How bad is all that Zinc? Too much of anything can be bad... Whenever the government regulates us by telling us its for our protection, we should carefully evaluate the situation. Look how the government limited the size of toilet tanks to 1.5 gallons. Now we flush twice to get the toilet paper down, so how did that help?? /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Whenever the government says, "We are here to help", watch out! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Oh no, I am on my government soapbox again! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Joe

 

[TonyC]

<font color=blue>Oh no, I am on my government soapbox again!</font color=blue>

Well move over and make room for me! Disaster might be too strong a word but this will end up being close to it. Another prime example of the "tree huggers" and government over reacting. In an earlier reply to this post, someone said it right...there is zero scientific evidence that any harm comes from CCA lumber. It has been around for ages now and no one has taken ill from exposure to it, and least not on the record anyway. The current alternatives are far inferior and will be much more expensive. As if CCA isn't expensive enough! I for one intend to build what I can and stockpile some for the future. If you keep it under cover and band it up tightly it'll keep straight. This whole thing is a travesty that we will pay for. We should all write our congressman and complain.

The soapbox is now available.....next!!!

 

[pennwalk]

I am surprised to hear that Trex is so slipery. I bought some to experiment and it didn't seen slippery. It is a composit of sawdust and recycled plastic milk bottles. I looker at some plastic boards that were all recycled milk bottles and it was definitely slippery.

Chris