Re: [gardeners] Question about pressure treated wood
Wendy Arons (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 22 Feb 2001 09:07:31 -0500
Organic Gardening magazine has done a number of metastudies of the
literature on CCA wood and has recommended strongly that it NOT be
used for vegetable gardens or for children's play structures. They
say arsenic DOES leach out into the soil; they also have found that
your plants don't thrive as well.
I've never used CCA wood for raised beds, so I don't know if plants
do more poorly; I personally wouldn't take the chance of having my
food plants so close to arsenic impregnated wood. If you read the
handout that lumber stores are supposed to give you with the wood (my
partner's a carpenter, we get these things all the time) they tell
you that you shouldn't bring the dust into the house, you need to
launder clothes separately after working with CCA lumber, you need to
wear gloves and a mask while working with it, you shouldn't eat or
drink while working with it...frankly, this doesn't sound like
something I want near my food.
There are other cheap alternatives, like "plastic" wood for raised
beds. We're experimenting with using straw bales to build a couple
of raised beds this year: they may be too high, but we won't have
to kneel...
Wendy, Indiana zone 5