The wave of public concern about the
safety of CCA-treated lumber (see
“New Arsenic Scare Puts Spotlight on PT
Lumber,” Notebook, 6/01) was ratcheted
up a notch last fall with the appearance
of a controversial report from a
Washington, D.C.-based environmental
organization. The Environmental
Working Group tested samples of new
pressure-treated lumber at Home Depot
and Lowe’s lumberyards in 13 metropolitan
areas by passing a moistened swab
over a 100-square-centimeter surface —
an area it compared to the size of a fouryear-
old child’s handprint — and sending
the swabs to a government-certified
lab for analysis.
Each swab was found to have picked
up an average of nearly 250 micrograms
of arsenic. Based on the residue levels
measured, the group