Miami Lawsuit Calls Wood Preservative a Health Hazard.

Publication: The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News)

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COPYRIGHT 2001 The Miami Herald

Byline: Barbara De Lollis

Mar. 16--A widely used wood preservative, which helps keep children's playsets free from termites and protects picnic tables from rotting, is a health hazard, a lawsuit filed in Miami charges.

The suit, filed last week in U.S. District Court on behalf of Miami homeowner Jerry Jacobs, who built a deck with CCA-treated wood, is the first to seek class-action status to challenge the pesticide chromated copper arsenate, or CCA, in the United States.

Among other things, the suit seeks unspecified monetary damages, medical monitoring for people who came into contact with the treated wood, and independent testing of soil on sites where the products are used by children.

Exposure to CCA treated wood can result in arsenic poisoning, which in the short term can trigger muscle spasms and vertigo and in the long run can cause severe gastritis, gastrointestinal problems and cancer of various types, the lawsuit...

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