Re: garden use of ACQ treated wood

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: : : : I am planning to build wooden boxes to enclose raised beds for a vegetable garden. How can I know that ACQ is any safer that the old CCA-treated wood? I've seen the warnings to aquatic life; would that have any bearing on growing food in proximity to the wood? : : : Hi Jean, : : : I personally do not believe in using chemicals treatments near food, or for the use in childrens playground equipment. The University of Florida has done studies : : : New Study from University of Florida (Final Draft) : : : "Leaching and Toxicity of CCA-treated and alternative-treated wood products" : : : Dr David Stilwell had done studies on the uptake of plants of arsenic but I am not aware of any on acq that have been done. : : : Some people in the past have recommended lining beds of treated wood with plastic to prevent plant uptake but that would only address some issues when it came to arsenic. : : : If you would wish to write a letter to my list asking your question I would be quite happy to send it out and perhaps someone would have an answer for you. : : : I personally after become poisoned by cca wood am quite aware now of the effects of chemicals and pesticides on the human body and would not choose an option for my garden that in included chemical treatments. : : : Take care and please keep safe. : : : Deborah : : : : ============== : : Deborah, you mention that "lining beds of CCA treated wood ... only address some issues when it came to arsenic". What are the other issues related to this? I am asking because I was planning to build some raised beds for vegetables using landscape ties lined with plastic sheets and now I am worried. : : Take care, Reuben : Hi Reuben, : Sorry for the delay I having been moving home from getting treatment in Ottawa and have fallen behind. : Now to your question. : Lining beds with plastic may well prevent the arsenic from leaching into the soil of your raised beds but it will not address several other concerns. : First of all you would need to overlap the plastic over the wood or watering or rain would cause it to drip in anyway. Arsenic does not move far in soil by itself so depending on the size of the beds and how much got in the levels may not be significant. : That said here is the Canadian governments stand on arsenic. : "- in 1993 Environment and Health & Welfare Canada stated that arsenic is a "non-threshold toxicant" (i.e., a substance for which there is believed to be some chance of adverse health effects at any level of exposure) (Environment Canada, 1993; ref. Amdur et al., 1991;)" : Now back to other concerns. Splinters will still be something you will need to be careful with as they can cause infections which have occaisonly led to amputations, so will working around your beds you need to be careful especially if you will be leaning on the wood. The wood will also leach out on the other side of the bed or from under the boxes. Building these boxes requires you to take the proper precautions for your health and to clean up the sawdust so that it is not licked up by a pet or carried into the home. : Another consideration that you should make is that as the phase out comes in to place more and more people are asking for proof when buying a home that cca wood has not been used or is present on the property. One of the reasons for that is concern over whether or not the homeowners burned the scraps or carried the sawdust from work clothes into the home. Sawdust that has entered a heating system through the vents would be hard to clean up. : This may seem like trivial concerns to many but if you are one of the people suffering from the effects of arsenic poisoning and facing the major health costs you would be quickly enlightened. : Hope that helps. : Take care and please keep safe. : Deborah

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