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Home › Articles › Safety Issues › Poison on the Playground

Poison on the Playground

Should Parents Be Concerned About Treated Wood?

By C.J. Johnson

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Beginning in the 1970s a majority of the wood used in play sets was treated with CCA. Therefore, it is likely that any pressure-treated wood purchased after that time was treated with CCA. If it is not certain that the wood is CCA treated, a call to the play set manufacturer might help determine if the wood used was CCA treated.

For other wood products in question, the following suggestions may be helpful. Wood that is freshly treated with CCA has a greenish tint. This color will be apparent unless the wood has also been coated with an additional colored stain. Any untreated wood such as redwood and cedar does not contain CCA. Consumers can assume that any wooden structures that were not constructed with redwood or cedar were most likely created with CCA-treated wood.

There are always risks in life. As parents contemplate the chances their children take in playing on wooden play structures, they should keep in mind that arsenic exposure can be dramatically limited by frequent hand washing and avoiding direct food-to-wood contact. However, the odds of 100 in a million of contracting cancer from exposure to CCA-treated wood may be higher than most families are willing to pay in order to play at the park.


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