Issues > July/August 2003 (#97) > Letters from Readers: Eco-Renovating and CCA-treated Wood

Letters from Readers: Eco-Renovating and CCA-treated Wood

Your May/June issue on home renovation arrived just as I was despairing of finding ecologically friendly building materials for a project in our brownstone. Thanks to your excellent resource list, we'll have shelves made from Medite II, a medium-density fiberboard without added formaldehyde made from 100 percent recovered and recycled wood fiber, which is cheaper than ordinary plywood. And we're installing a rubber floor made from recycled tires, by Expanko.

We also cleared some space by sending several old computers to be recycled by Per Scholas (www.perscholas.org)--as did our community garden.

Thanks for the tips!

Tracy Tullis and Steve Hubbell
Brooklyn, NY

We just installed a new fence made of pressure-treated wood. Is it safe to plant a vegetable garden next to it, or could the arsenic in the wood contaminate the soil and the vegetables?

Jeff Collins
St. Louis, MO

Arsenic in CCA-treated wood can contaminate soil, says Sean Gray, an analyst at Environmental Working Group (EWG), and vegetables have been found in some cases to absorb toxins, including arsenic, from soil. New research shows the brake fern can absorb some arsenic. Don't plant food crops next to the fence. Test your soil for arsenic and coat your fence with a nontoxic sealant to keep CCA from rubbing off on hands (See CCA-treated Play Sets and Decking). See lqma.ifas.ufl.edu