Treated Timber - Important read

[opelblues]

A few years ago i became very ill, after blood testing it was found that it was arsenic in very low levels but it was enough to make me sick, the first place that was looked at was were i worked, i handled 50+ timber pallets a day. Not there??. The treatments were long to get rid of some of the poison. 2 years ago the EPA Queensland opened a pit at a saw mill 1km up the road from my old place. 60+ drums of timber treatment some rusted some split, was this reason for me getting sick or not. My point is unless there is proof that this is the reason I can’t blame the saw mill. Or I got divorced a few years ago and haven’t been sick since

[Wooden Mechanic]

Or I got divorced a few years ago and haven’t been sick since

Hahahaha!

So very mean...

[bpj1968]

According to the community shed coordinator who has had something like 40+ years experience in the timber industry Tasmania is now the only state in Aus that still uses arsenic based treatment on pine. The reasoning behind this according to him is that it gives the rest of the states somewhere to sell off their stock piles of arsenic treatments. Don't know how valid this is as i've never had enough interest in the stuff to follow it up but i do know that we still have the arsenic based treated here. Regardless of what is used in the treatment extreem care should be taken & burning the treated pine is never a good idea.

CCA treated pine is still in use on the mainland, except decking boards and handrails. There are a few alternatives, but not that common

[Colourland]

I would like to add.

In my experience and opinion, there are 2 REAL possibilities.

1. Your friend has an allergy to it.
2. It was imported treated pine that bypassed the Australian Standards and therfore had a higher content of Arsenic than is allowed by the required Australian Standard.

Quite often, unfortunately, business's try to cut costs and often that is achieved by cheap imports. These cheap imports sometimes skip the Aus Standards requirements. I know that it often happens with the toxicity of glue content in chipboard or mdf.

As a GENERAL rule though.. Treated Pine purshased does not present ANY problem for anyone here.