A Field Study of Dislodgeable Arsenic from CCA-Treated Wood Using Human-Hand and Surrogate Wipes

ABSTRACT In 2001, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) docketed a petition to ban the use of chromated copper arsenate (CCA)-treated wood in playground equipment because of the carcinogenicity of arsenic. In addressing the request, CPSC staff conducted a series of laboratory and field studies to measure the amount of dislodgeable arsenic from CCA-treated wood. The field studies consisted of sampling eight CCA-treated wood decks and 12 sets of CCA-treated wood playground equipment. The sampling was performed using human-hand wipes and surrogate wipes. The sampling protocols were developed by CPSC staff in laboratory experiments. The estimated dislodgeable arsenic from the human-hand wipes ranged from 1.0 μ g to 20.9 μ g with a mean value of 7.7 μ g for the eight decks and from 0.3 to 33.7 μ g with a mean of 7.6 μ g for the 12 sets of playground equipment. The results are in agreement with a similar study conducted by another laboratory. Mathematical relationships between the hand-wipe and the surrogate-wipe results were established. This existence of the relationships permitted the use of the surrogate-wipe method, which could be performed with greater consistency and ease than the hand-wipe method.