Photo Stories
January 3, 2003 - Since EPA cut a deal with the pressure-treated wood industry to restrict certain uses of chromated copper arsenate (CCA)-treated wood in February 2002, retailers have been scrambling to sell off existing stocks. Today's photo story shows a CCA-treated playground set on sale at a Home Depot store in Washington, DC suburbs of Northern Virgina. The photo was taken months after EPA announced the agreement.
It is estimated that the voluntary industry phase down of residential CCA wood affects about 5% of the highly toxic wood preservative market, according to Beyond Pesticides/NCAMP. CCA, overall, accounts for approximately 10% of the market, when including the other hazardous wood preservatives, penta and creosote. In the latest data available from the American Wood Preservatives Institute's 1995 statistical report, 1.6 billion pounds of wood preservatives are used to treat wood, 138 million pounds of CCA, 656 million pounds of penta and 825 million pounds of creosote. The vast majority of wood preserving arsenic, penta and creosote are used in a broad array of products from utility poles to railroad ties.
"Nothing short of a ban of all uses of the hazardous wood preservatives will protect the public from the chemical's short and long term adverse health effects," said Jay Feldman, Executive Director of Beyond Pesticides. "Since less toxic and non-toxic alternatives are available for all wood preservative uses, it is wrong and unnecessary to allow any use to continue."
To put additional pressure on EPA, on December 10, 2002, Beyond Pesticides, the Communications Workers of America (CWA), Center for Environmental Health, and a victim family from Florida filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court to stop the use of arsenic and dioxin-laden wood preservatives, which are used to treat lumber, utility poles and railroad ties. The litigation charges that the chemicals, known carcinogenic agents, hurt utility workers exposed to treated poles, children playing near treated structures, and the environment, and cites the availability of alternatives.
The complaint seeks to stop the continued use of the wood preservatives CCA, commonly used in pressure-treated lumber and utility poles; pentachlorophenol (penta), used most commonly in utlility poles; and creosote, used most commonly in railroad ties. The groups say that EPA has overwhelming data on the wood preservatives' health and environmental risks and is aware of widely available and economically viable alternatives that compel the agency to stop use, rather than continue reviews that have gone on for over 20 years.
The lawsuit also cites EPA's test results that indicate that continued disposal of treated wood in municipal landfills does not provide necessary protection and violates EPA's hazardous waste regulations. Beyond Pesticides has filed a separate petition urging EPA to reclassify pesticide-treated wood waste as hazardous, citing requirements in law.
The three wood preservatives targeted by the lawsuit are linked to a wide range of health problems including cancer, birth defects, kidney and liver damage, disruption of the endocrine system and death. In fact, two of the components of CCA, arsenic and chromium (VI), are classified as known human carcinogens. Penta, classified as a probable carcinogen and a known endocrine disruptor in its own right, is contaminated with dioxins that the National Institutes of Health has classified as known human carcinogens. Creosote, a mix of toxic chemicals, is a cancer-causing agent and is neurotoxic.
EPA has calculated that children exposed to soil contaminated with penta leaching out of utility poles face a risk of cancer that is 220 times higher than the agency's acceptable level. According to EPA's own data, a typical worker who paints penta onto poles in the field faces more than a 100% lifetime risk of cancer. Other categories of workers, such as utility pole installers, also face risks many times above EPA's "acceptable" level. The practice of allowing the disposal of treated wood in unlined dumps or its recycling into mulch is exacerbating contamination and risk factors, according to the lawsuit.
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