Letters

Are We Poisoning Our Kids With Treated Wood? To the Editor: Picture this scenario: Cambridge, Massachusetts. A two-year-old child is leaning over the railing of the jungle gym at a newly remodeled neighborhood playground. The child's arms are draped over the railing and his eyes are serenely observing the chaotic activity as he absentmindedly chews the wood railing. But this is no ordinary railing. This railing is a coppery-green color, and it has been treated with chemicals that no selfrespecting organism would share a patch of earth with: chromated-copper arsenate. This is the same wood which, when purchased at the lumber yard, is accompanied with instructions that exhort the handler to wear a mask when sawing, to wear gloves when touching, and