Treated-Wood Concerns
Spur Backyard Problem

May 23, 2002 -- Last year, William Koegel shelled out $1,500 for a giant climbing gym made of special lumber for his backyard. Guaranteed to stand up to the weather, it was a big hit with Mr. Koegel and his four kids. That is, until the government announced the wood it's made from could be a health hazard and is being pulled off the market.

"What am I supposed to do with this thing now?" asks the puzzled Washington, D.C., attorney.

He's not the only one asking that question. As if the drought in much of the country this year weren't bad enough, many Americans are now learning that much of the stuff on their lawns -- from playsets to gazebos to even garden mulch -- could be leaching harmful arsenic. The culprit: pressure-treated lumber, which is in an estimated half of American yards. After years of complaints from environmentalists and states, the Environmental Protection Agency announced in February it was taking it off the market, a move that has homeowners across the country scrambling to figure out what to do with it.

Some consumers are rushing to get the wood out of their yards, and sales of everything from lumber preserved without arsenic to composite decking (a mix of recycled wood and plastic) have jumped in recent months, say retailers and makers. Since CedarWorks, a playset maker, began touting its cedar structures as "safe" and "without toxic chemicals," sales have risen by 30%. But other companies say many worried homeowners are at a standstill. Zaragosa Barbosa, who owns an Austin, Texas, lumberyard says even contractors have been asking for advice on whether pressure-treated decks should be replaced. His answer? "We still don't know," he says.

Garden Borders

Virginia gardener Margaret Simpson is among the confused. She's used pressure-treated lumber as a border for her raised vegetable beds for 20 years and never thought there'd be a problem. So is the biology professor ripping it out? Not quite. She's leaving her old beds alone, but won't plant veggies -- they're going in a new bed bordered with untreated pine. The new wood will rot, but "I plan to replace it every few years," she says. And when Timothy Bause put in pressure-treated borders in his Napa, Calif., garden he lined them with heavy plastic to prevent any leaching. "I thought the plastic would mean we wouldn't worry," he says. "Should we?"

How did a workhorse of the American backyard -- in an estimated 80% of decks and 90% of playsets -- suddenly become such a source of high anxiety for homeowners? The debate actually dates back to the mid-'90s, when Florida's environmental-resources agency discovered that the lumber, made by soaking pressurized pine in a mixture of chemicals, including arsenic, was leaching the known carcinogen. When other state studies also found problems, concerns over the wood escalated, and some towns closed playgrounds and yanked out pressure-treated jungle gyms.

The $4 billion preserved-wood industry says all the fears have been overblown. "The fundamental safety of the wood hasn't changed," says Mel Pine, a spokesman for the American Wood Preservers Institute. "But perceptions in the marketplace have." Despite its decision, the EPA hasn't found that the wood "poses any unreasonable risk," though the agency has yet to do its own evaluation, which could take years. Still, in February, with the industry facing lawsuits and the EPA under pressure from Congress, the agency and lumber makers cut a deal to take the wood off the home market by the end of 2003. "We are talking about arsenic here," says EPA spokesman David Deegan. "It's almost intuitive that lowering the exposure is a good idea."

In the meantime every piece of preserved wood for sale between now and 2003 is supposed to carry a label cautioning do-it-yourselfers to wear a dust mask, goggles and gloves when cutting it, to be careful around sawdust, and to wash work clothing separately. Some chemicals may "be dislodged from wood surface upon contact with skin," it says. For those who can't easily replace the wood, the agency suggests precautions like coating pressure-treated items with oil-based stains, which it says "may reduce" the risk of arsenic exposure.

Switching to Redwood

That may sound worrisome, but Home Depot, the nation's biggest seller of the lumber, says its customers are still buying the old wood, according to spokesman Donald Harrison (the company also says it'll pull the wood before the December 2003 deadline). Still, the warnings were enough to scare away John Tentler, a Westminster, Colo., research scientist, who shopped for deck-building materials at his local store. He went for redwood for the floor, stairs and railings -- "anywhere kids might put their hands, and therefore, mouths," he says -- and for the supports he bought a new version of pressure-treated wood, called ACQ, that doesn't contain arsenic. He's not the only one: The industry expects to sell billions of board feet of ACQ wood over the next few years.

But the alternatives don't come cheap. ACQ runs about 10% more than the old lumber, while the naturally rot-resistant redwood Mr. Tentler bought costs 75% more; even composite materials can cost 20% more. And prices are only going to go up: New duties on imported cedar are expected to increase its cost by 30% over the next few months. Still, many people, especially parents, are willing to shell out. The biggest change at CedarWorks, where the playsets cost about a third more than pressure-treated ones? "Callers no longer ask, 'Why are your playsets so expensive compared to pine?' " says owner Barrett Brown.

Cheryl Lasiowski of suburban Atlanta wasn't thinking about arsenic when she bought a pricey $2,000 pine playset from Play Nation earlier this year. In fact, it wasn't until a month ago that she learned that the maker uses the safer ACQ wood. "I never heard there might be arsenic in children's toys," says the mother of four. "We got lucky."

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