Could the wooden play structure in your neighborhood park be toxic? Many parks use a chemical preservative to protect the wood from insects and rotting. It's called Chromated Copper Arsenate, or CCA, which contains arsenic.
Some local communities are taking steps to protect children from the very place they play.
CCA is a preservative found in most treated wood made from 1970 to 2003.
"Your child plays on it, puts their hands on it. Can arsenic come off on your hand and be a source of exposure? Well, surprisingly it can," said toxicologist Michael Allen with the Ingham County Health Department.
At East Lansing's Patriarche Park, a big wood playscape offers fun for the entire family. There's wood everywhere and children touch it. There's even places for families to sit down and eat on the treated wood.
"Makes me a little bit nervous to think that, you know, you want to have more information about it that's for sure, to find out if it's something that would leach in the skin," said parent Sara Koehler.
"I mean if it's going to be a park open to the community you hope that it's going to be okay for your kids to play on," said Lauren Cooney, who works as a nanny.
Many community leaders are asking if wooden parks are safe now that they know the very place they built for children to play could be a danger.
"We became concerned immediately because we weren't necessarily sure what we were dealing with," said Tim McCaffrey with the City of East Lansing.
Over the past several months officials in East Lansing and Brighton have learned their parks are poisoned. Not only is arsenic in the wood, small amounts have seeped into the soil.
Health officials say it's unclear if there's cause for concern.
"If the only source of arsenic in your diet and in your exposure in your lifetime is only the CCA in wolmunized lumber, it is probably not enough to cause harm. But if you already have arsenic somewhere in your environment, from groundwater, from your diet, from the soils in the urban centers of our cities, then it may be enough to put you over the top," said Allen.
The government says there are such small levels of arsenic in wood play structures there's no reason to be alarmed. Local health officials agree, advising parents to use common sense.
"What I would tell them is what your grandmother would tell you, which is to wash your hands. Because when children play, you'd be surprised where they put their hands and how often they put their hands. And the truth is arsenic is coming off on it," said Allen.
Allen said the use of this toxic product was not used out of carelessness.
"This is an example where, it is not that people didn't care, it's just that we didn't know. It's one of these things, CCA was a great product. It really does keep the lumber surviving for decades," said Allen.
Decades later, the playgrounds have survived but concern is growing.
"We had our own engineers study done and independent testing and analysis of samples and we confirmed that there was a presence of arsenic particularly in soils six inches below the surface," said Brighton City Manager, Dana Foster.
In Brighton, the city actually shut down its playscape, fencing it off for nearly three months while workers made the necessary repairs.
"It was one of the most difficult decisions I had to make because I knew what the impact was going to be on the families that frequent the playground every day, the surrounding businesses and in general," said Foster.
The city spent $80,000 to replace some of the wood and seal its entire "Imagination Station."
"We found out that you can seal, it's a like a stain, a sealing agent that you can use and that will reduce the amount of arsenic on the surface to a point that's less than the levels that we run into on a daily basis," said McCaffrey.
East Lansing also plans to seal its play structure at Patriarche Park until it can raise enough money to replace it.
"We are looking at probably a $250,000 project for appropriate removal and replacement. Luckily for us, the East Lansing Rotary Club was going to work with the city to replace or to renovate the structure and they've agreed to stay on to help us try to raise the funds to go ahead and do that," said McCaffrey.
The city of East Lansing has posted four of signs in their playscape to let people know about the arsenic and the potential risks.
"I saw signs and I don't think it's a problem, so we still come here and play," said Cooney.
In Brighton not everyone agrees a few coats of sealer will keep the arsenic away. @
"It seems hard to believe that just covering over something like this is going to satisfy that. So it's hard to believe," said Scott Cruz.
"The community I know, loves this place, and I feel the city council wants to do what's best for us. I'd like to see the repairs. It looks like it's going well and I'm happy those repairs are being made," said parent John Sowash.
