Another green scare. (Scan).(policies of the Environmental Protection Agency)(Brief Article)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scared the wits out of parents when it announced that it would ban residential use--in decks, playground equipment, picnic tables--of wood treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA), the standard wood preservative since the 1940s. An EPA spokesman said his agency's risk assessment took into consideration the allegation of an environmental advocacy organization called the Environmental Working Group that touching wooden swing sets regularly could cause one out of 500 children to develop lung or bladder cancer.

Florida's Department of Health appointed a group of physicians to conduct "an extensive review of medical literature" on the subject. Their finding after one year of investigation: The amount of arsenic that can be absorbed from treated wood "is not significant compared to natural sources, and will not result in detectable arsenic intake ... and does not appear sufficient to adversely affect the health of children or adults." The chief ...