Treated Pine

[silentC]

Just heard on the radio that a ban will be put into force on all treated pine in children's playgrounds, exposed structures and decking due to links with children developing cancer. To be phased out of children's playgrounds by April next year.

[silentC]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200503/s1324598.htm

[PAH1]

I thought that CCA (copper chromium arsenic) treatment of timber was being banned anyway and that an alternative chemistry was already in place. However all three of those lovelies are rather dangerous and I will not be that upset by their demise. Leaching of the treatment back out of the timber has been an issue for a very long time, the other side is what to do with old treatment sites ask the people in Armidale NSW about that one.

While relatively safe for occasional use, I have always wondered what the cumulative effect of constant exposure would be eg Garden landscaper or childs cubby house. So many of these things take decades to sort out and it is not easy, for example see how long it took to get asbestos removed from the marketplace or the ongoing war opn cigarettes

[craigb]

What about those who used TP for their house frames? :eek:

[Eastie]

An aside from the issues surrounding the APVMA phase out of certain uses, part of the research I’ve been doing over the past 2 years is measuring airborne dust exposure for carpenters, landscapers and fencing contractors when cutting CCA pine. I’m yet to finalise results from lab analysis to show how much CCA is in the dust and correlate this to exposure standards for copper, chromium and arsenic. Lets just say that results to date are concerning to the extent they will be handed over to the health experts to work over and determine the likelihood and historical incidence of disease through repeated/accumulated exposure.


The health warnings to protect yourself from dust when cutting and wearing gloves when handling CCA are out there for good reason.

Whether or not the decision by the APVMA to phase out some uses of CCA is a good decision or over-reaction could be debated until the cows come home.

[vsquizz]

We (the volunteer Dad's) have already had to remove the treated pine fort from our childrens playgroup centre.

I don't know what the problem is really, I've been telling people its crap for years.

Cheers

[E. maculata]

'bout time, horrible, horrible cwap.
It also affected us whom for years didn't know anything about it or how bad it could be until we got mysteriously ill whenever we had inhaled,absorbed or used it raw...... however you don't need to be Einstein to put 2 & 2 together so many of us figured it out for ourselves, as did many of the responsible employers in the NSW hardwood industry, these were the ones who noticed enough of their guys get crook or got sick themselves around it, & despite profit driven apologists from the CCA manufacturers/suppliers and some elements of the pine industry acted in an ethical manner and didn't need to wait around for it to be banned by some authority.
Long Live people power(and some people wonder why I'm a unionist & hate pine:rolleyes: )