Update: Children
to gain protection from
arsenic-treated wood at child care centers!
The NC Health Services Commission has
passed a new rule for child care centers that will protect
children from exposure to cancer-causing arsenic in playground
equipment. The rule requires child care centers to seal arsenic-treated
wood every two years, and make contaminated soil inaccessible
to children, as well as banning new uses of arsenic-treated
wood at child care centers. The Commission received
a record number of public comments in support of the new
rule – thanks to everyone who took action! You made
a real difference!
Final review of the rule is now pending
in the NC Rules Review Commission.
Background
In 2005 the Children's Environmental
Health Branch of the NC Department of Environment and
Natural Resources (NC DENR) proposed an amendment to
the NC
childcare sanitation rule that includes sealing playground
equipment made with arsenic-treated wood to prevent young
children’s exposure to cancer-causing
arsenic.
The proposed rule came under heavy
fire from the wood treatment industry, who argued that
children’s exposures from arsenic-treated wood
do not pose a health threat, despite voluminous government
research to the contrary.
Arsenic-treated wood is no longer manufactured
for most non-industrial uses in the US since a 2003 agreement
between the industry and the US EPA, because arsenic
readily leaches from the treated wood and can be easily
picked up by human hands. Arsenic is well known to cause
cancer and developmental problems in humans; it is also
well established that exposures from touching treated
wood, and the soil around the wood, dramatically increase
arsenic exposure. Sealing arsenic-treated wood with an
oil based sealant or stain can reduce that exposure by
86-90%.
The NC Legislature is currently considering
a bill, the School Children’s Health Act (H 1502)
that addresses arsenic-treated wood and four other toxic
contaminants in NC public schools. Learn
more about it.
Learn
more about arsenic-treated wood and how you can reduce
toxic exposures.
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