Safe Soil

My garden begins just beyond or at the edge of where an old deck stood. I removed the deck about ten years ago and it was in good shape at the time but I'm pretty sure it contained pressure treated lumber which would have contained arsenic. Should I be concerned and does anyone know of a reliable kit I could use to rest the soil near the location of the old deck.

do you intend to grow vegetables or fruit there? if not, I'm not sure you need to be concerned.

You can have the soil professionally tested but remember arsenic is a naturally occurring element. It seems like after 10yrs if any had leached into the soil that rain would have diluted it but a test sure wouldn't hurt.

read this
https://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/ho/2009/fs0909.pdf
in part, it says aresenic binds to soil particles and thus is not transferred into plants. But read the whole thing to educate yourself.

Well thanks everyone for your responses - what a great welcome for a newcomer!
Special thanks for the link to the University of Nevada paper. Encouraging is the finding that if there was enough arsenic in the soil to make food plants unsafe to eat it would also likely affect their growth. Things grow just fine in my garden, indeed the area in question is the best end! I will probably talk to a company I trust but for now I am reassured.

Urban gardening is becoming very popular here in Canada - there is even an urban gardener selling vegetables at our market. One does wonder however about the safety of some urban soil from things like treated lumber and, in areas of high traffic, from the lead that would have been deposited there from auto exhaust before it was banned as an additive. Modern technology can be a nightmare!

Alta, couldn't agree more and that was when solvents and such were disposed of wherever and there was no regulation. I think when something comes back in fashion it's called retro.....I was called a prepper for gardening I laughed and said it used to be the norm, not that long ago.

For more interesting information on arsenic in food, go to www.consumerreports.org, and search their site for arsenic. They have lots of information. In particular, check out this interesting chart:
1. Go to www.consumerreports.org.
2. In their search box, type: arsenic chart roots of the problem.
3. Click on this link in the News & Articles area: Members of Congress introducing bill to limit arsenic in rice products
4. Scroll down to the last sentence of the article.
5. Click on this link: chart detailing the root of the arsenic problem.

(I tried putting the direct URL into this post, but it got truncated because it was so long. That's why I have to send you the long way around. If you want to try a more direct root, copy the following the url and paste it in your browser. It has an extra space in it that I added between "streaming" and "/images." I added the space so that the end part wouldn't get truncated in the post. Now delete the space that I added between "streaming" and "/images." It will become one long string with no spaces. Now you have a valid url that will work... http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/resources/streaming /images/arsenic-big-04.jpg)

They tested rice and apple juice for arsenic and found higher levels in some brands than others. The levels weren't high enough to tell people not to eat rice or drink apple juice, but they did say to use moderation in certain cases and (think giving apple juice to babies every day or eating rice daily as part of an ethnic diet). Part of their conclusion is that American grown rice, particularly in the areas in the United States where cotton was grown for many, many years and sprayed with pesticides containing arsenic, there are higher amounts of arsenic in the rice than rice grown elsewhere. The growing technique that is common with rice includes flooding the soil and this promotes uptake of arsenic from soil and water. Countries that haven't had enough money to use costly pesticides on their crops don't have so much residual arsenic in the soil and thus in their rice. These would be countries like India and Thailand.

That's good information, but note that does not mean that the original poster's situation will, or won't, lead to arsenic in food.
You can find rice from India etc online.

Yes, I was not saying that our original poster's situation related directly to this research, I was just sharing other info about how arsenic can get in our foods. I'm sorry if it seemed I was trying to tie GreenCorner's situation in with this research.

In fact, unless GreenCorner has been spraying the ground with arsenic every year and now intends to flood their garden to grow their food, they should be reassured!

I agree, momlady, and I hope I didn't offend you with my post. I just wanted to clarify to others. We've started eating more brown rice and also appreciate your information.

I have used old PT deck boards as raised bed edging and as compost bin material for 20+ years, and minor vega and fruit gardening, and we are still alive, FWIW, LOL. I had a good article in a 'Kitchen Gardening' print magazine years ago with good info, but no idea where that is now.

No problem, I wasn't being clear in my post!

We had a wooden post that was sold to us to tie a young tree to for support...a cherry tree...when the company that sold it found it had been treated with arsenic they freaked out and wanted it back. We never bothered because the risk seemed so low.

Regarding the article you can't find, the problem today is sure not getting information, it's sorting through the flood coming in, figuring out what's BS and what's not, and then trying to keep track of the good stuff. Talk about overwhelming!

;)
Here's a fact sheet from Ohio Dept of health. We can always trust our government, right? ;)
https://www.odh.ohio.gov/~/media/ODH/ASSETS/Files/eh/HAS/ArsenicinGardening.pdf

Hmm, that's interesting. They are actually giving mitigation actions you can take to lower your exposure to arsenic...

Washing your hands to remove arsenic dust and
soil, especially before meals, can lower the
possibility that arsenic on the skin is accidentally
swallowed while eating.

So far, so good. I wash my hands before eating.

 Families can lower exposures to arsenic by
regularly cleaning the home of dust and tracked-in
soil.

What, you want me to clean my house!! No way!

 Door mats can help lower the amount of soil that is
tracked into the home and removing your shoes
before you enter the house will also help.

OK, did that already. We live in a muddy area.

 Covering bare soil with clean sand, wood chips,
gravel or grass can lower contact that children and
pets may have with soil and the tracking of soil into
the home.

Got that one beat: no bare soil means no weeds, so we don't have bare soil.

 Bag gardening-work clothes before they are
brought into the home for cleaning.

Not a chance!

 Use gardening gloves to reduce your exposure to
arsenic dust and soils

I wear gloves to protect my hands from blisters and thorns.

 Avoid working in the yard on windy days and/or
consider wearing a mask if you spend time in dusty
areas.

Good grief!

 Dampen soils with water before you garden to limit
the amount of dust you inhale.

Overkill.

 Immediately wash your hands or shower after
working with arsenic-contaminated soils.

Yeppers, I'd do that for sure if I was TOUCHING ARSENIC. Or mercury. Or lead. Or herbicides. Or my cats' litterbox.

hahahaha, what a great and honest assessment of those precautions!!!!!
I think I'm completely in agreement.

I almost hate to chime in here, but I will.
Everett Washington had a smelter about a hundred years ago, the smoke settled all over the area, and contained arsenic. The smelter closed decades ago, but the arsenic binds into the soil. It became a superfund site and included residential neighborhoods and a park. They dug out the top layers and trucked in new soil, even so residents are advised not to grow vegetables.
However that situation is in fact very different, although it does show that this is a case where the toxin does not leach away, and because arsenic is an element, it does not degrade in any way like many other poisons do. This is similar to the situation with the rice paddies in the south where they had used arsenicals on the cotton crops in the past.
That said, if the wood was not rotting and mixing into the soil, the chances that much of the arsenic got into the soil is very very tiny-the arsenic binds into the wood very well. Since the deck is described as being in good shape I would not worry about it if it was my garden.

Wow - didn't think my original post would initiate so much broad discussion. Didn't know I was, a "retro" gardener :) Mind you, I am old enough to remember the first "back to the land" movement of the '60s ( although my back stood up to gardening better back then). Ironically, my main reason for starting again was to grow my own garlic, the only stuff available at the time being product of China. They now have whole provinces where the soil has been compromised by smelter dust. I'm sure whatever small amounts of chemicals might be in most North American backyard soil would pale by comparison. Still, being a worry-wart I'm careful. Now, building elevated beds I'm using simple spruce 2X10s rather than PT which I treat with vegetable oil (raw linseed oil would also work but I'm also a little cheap). I've had some untreated spruce 2X6's laying behind the shed for ten or twelve years now and they're weathered but still sound. And besides, how long do they have to last? (refer to '60s comment!). Anyway, thanks again for all your input! Good gardening!

That's the worst part when you remember something before it was retro. lol