June 6, 2001
Dear Editor
Recently a friend of mine said that a neighbor on the
Caloosahatchee removed his old dock, stacked it along
the shore and burned it. He asked if this was bad since
it was Pressure Treated. (Pressure-treated wood is composed
of a solution of copper-toxic to the fungi that cause
rot, arsenic-an insecticide and chromium-a binder that
locks the pesticide into the wood). After some investigation
I found that when P.T. lumber is burned, the arsenic is
no longer bound up in the wood but becomes a free compound
once again.
If after burning, the arsenic is now a free compound,
then how much arsenic is in P.T. wood? A single 12 foot
long 2 x 6 contains more than an ounce of arsenic; enough
to kill 250 adults if they were to ingest it. But since
it’s mixed with ash it would take about 5 tablespoons
of the ash to kill a 1,100 pound cow; or a single tablespoonful
could kill a 150-pound human. Last year over 57 million
pounds of arsenic were used in P.T. lumber in the United
States alone.
You can see how potentially toxic that fire was to all
the life in the river and those humans who get their drinking
water from it. Luckily or unluckily it washed into a large
body of water and was diluted. However, if a similar fire
is burned next to a pond or small creek it could have
terrible consequences.
So please don’t burn
P.T. wood, it will release the arsenic into the nearest
water body or leach into the aquifer. Better yet ask you
lumber store to stock ACQ treated lumber instead of standard
CCA treated wood. One more thing, seal or paint your P.T.
to prevent it from leaching and tell your neighbors about
this information.
Rob
Andrys
President,
Caloosahatchee RiverWatch
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