>The new issue of In These Times has a real interesting article on the
>problems of pressure treated lumber---it turns out that much of the
>pressure treated lumber sold contains arsenic in it as a perservative.
>ITT picked up on this story from a magazine called this old house a spin
>off of the TV show by the same name. ITT reports treated lumber from
>southern pine plantations as a source of the problem.
Oddly enough, I ran across a reference to this problem just this evening (Wednesday) in Juliet Schor's new book, _The Overspent American_. A family resident in one of the ever-increasing number of communities where the local property-owners' association regulates what kinds of vehicles can be parked in the driveway and how the laundry is hung out to dry wanted to install a metal swing set. The association insisted that the metal swing set (too downmarket) be replaced by wooden swings, even though the pressurized wood used in their construction is saturated with noxious chemicals.
Alison Brennan