Does it leach arsenic into the soil?

I'm sure everyone is familiar with pressure treated wood. Its usually got a green cast to it and so many outdoor products (like fences and arbors) in the US are being made with it. I know the stuff is soaked in an arsenic solution and this year I've noticed that its finally getting labelled as so.

My question is: Does anyone know if and how much arsenic is released into the soil from it? I would not eat anything that grew next to one of these fences, but I see a lot of people with these things in their yard, and they're growing food along the side of them, or using the lumber as plant stakes. Does anyone have any other information on the toxicity of this stuff?

That's a fine-looking can o' worms you're opening here :)

As you may (or may not) know, pressure-treated wood treated with arsenic will not be legally sold to retail customers in the US after December 2003. For the very concern you just expressed.

An article I read recently indicated the government is bowing to public pressure to ban it; the pressure is coming from the fear of leaching and/or arsenic poisoning of children who handle the wood (on playgrounds, etc.) and then stick their fingers or hands in their mouths, possibly ingesting the arsenic, which in later years can cause cancer.

Those on both sides of the debate both have tests that show the other is wrong, so who's to say? (One study says you'd have to eat a daily tablespoon of dirt from a spot near presure-treated wood, and consume this amount for 30 years to ingest enough leached arsenic to cause health risks.)

All I know is I wish I had invented that recycled plastic decking material - it's likely to become the new hot commodity when pressure-treated wood can't be purchased by do-it-yourselfers.

This message was edited Monday, May 6th 4:46 PM

I notice that on the Victory Garden, they are tearing out the pressure treated bed liners and replacing them with that recycled stuff.

But have you checked out the cost factors? I would do without a deck before I'd pay that kind of money.

And the vinyl fences people are starting to put up are worse! Like vinyl blinds, much of the plastic contains lead. Vinyl photodegrates, meaning that it decomposes in sunlight, at a pretty good consistant rate, bringing more and more available lead to the surface as it ages. And yes, the exact same thing happens with vinyl siding on houses. Lead slowly and steadily accumulates in that garden next to your house.

When I was a kid, I lived next door to an old Chinese woman who grew the strangest looking vegetables next her house-I wish I knew Chinese back then! One day the ambulance came and took her away. The culprit? Lead poioning because her garden was right next to her house, peeling lead-based paint away and into her garden. The vegetables contained so much lead that it put her in the hospital for a week.

Vinyl siding maintenance free? I think not. Fortunately, I bought a brick house. Unfortunately the back porch has been sided with vinyl. My overtime at work is going towards buying cedar shakes to replace that gunk.

>My overtime at work is going towards buying cedar shakes to replace that gunk. <

Be cheaper to get you a froe and a mallet and some ceder billets and start making your own. Good excercise, too. :-)

I would love to! I think the arboretum would eventually find me though.

Actually, Square Root, it doesn't take that much time. Once you go through the learning curve, you'd be amazed how many shakes you can make in a spare hour. The trick, of course, is keeping the froe sharp, and developing a rhythm.

I've followed the topic for quite a few yrs only to be teased and ridiculed by those "in the know"! HAh! Finally people listen.
I did some research just 6 months ago for an employee at Home Depot. His customers were actually asking questions about the CCA treat lumber. (I may have it still saved as a file if you'd like to email me squareroot.)
Vols is correct, some folks say there is no dangerous amount to worry about, others have proof there is. What really made me chuckle disgustingly tho was that Purdue did a study and said it was safe. Then I found another study done in Texas that was deemed "a separate independent study" and it was nearly literally written word for word as the Purdue study, perhaps some student simply copied in an effort to graduate? Who knows, but it was obvious that both studies were considered "official".
Fortunately, there is a new way that is coming to fruition concerning wood treatment. There is a company out West somewhere that has converted over their treatment plants and no longer use Chromated Copper Arsenate. Can't remember what the replacement is right now but it is considered safe. Other lumber plants will probably convert over to the new system, especially since they now HAVE to. I'll wait for this before I go w/the vinyl stuff.

And by the way, I confess...I have lots of stuff around here built out of CCA treated lumber (deck, fence posts mainly). However, I don't allow children to play under the deck...rainfall tends to allow arsenic from the lumber to collect there. For those of you concerned they say if you cover your lumber (paint, sealer, etc) every other yr this should contain the poisons...but heck, if we did that to begin with we all could've used un-treated lumber, eh?