Tampabay: Treated-wood play sets in limbo

She had avoided the park for three months but returned to see if the arsenic-treated wood in the play set had been replaced. It hadn't, and Tampa officials have no plans to do so.

"If they're using poison to kill rats, what can it do to kids?" asked Gonzalez, 49, of Tampa.

It's a question local officials in the Tampa Bay area are wrestling with. Most said Wednesday they have no plans to tear out such wooden play sets in the wake of an agreement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and American manufacturers to end the use of arsenic-treated wood.

"We've been told that it's not unsafe," said Tampa Parks Director Ross Ferlita. "No one has really come up with scientific facts that say if you touch this, something is going to happen to you."

Tampa has a half-dozen play sets made from pressure-treated lumber, Ferlita said, including a well-used set at Al Lopez Park. The city has excavated dirt next to the pressure-treated timbers in an effort to remove arsenic that may have leached into the ground. Such play structures are scattered over the Tampa Bay area, and, indeed, the entire country.

The arsenic comes from chromated copper arsenate, or CCA, infused into wood to make it resist insects and weather. While it is known that long-term exposure to arsenic can cause cancer, there still is scientific debate about how much is too much.

Last year, an expert hired by the state said children who played on such equipment could get enough arsenic on their hands to pose a health risk.

While makers of pressure-treated lumber, a $4-billion-a-year industry, acknowledge that arsenic leaches out of the wood, they contend the levels are too low to worry about.

The EPA is not recommending that existing structures be removed. The agency said that in two years, wood treated with the substance could no longer be used for play sets, decks, picnic tables, landscaping timbers or residential fencing.

David Struhs, state Department of Environmental Protection secretary, said he applauds the industry's decision to phase out arsenic-treated wood. But when asked what Florida homeowners and communities ought to do about existing structures, Struhs said: "We don't know yet."

That leaves local officials dangling.

Mark Abdo, executive director of the Long Center in Clearwater, said there are no plans to remove the wooden play set at Sunshine Playground. The group's governing board will make the final call.

There is no scientific consensus to justify tearing out the play set, he said. "That's the problem," Abdo said. "No one knows which way to go yet."

In Crystal River, the interim director of public works said the the city does not plan to remove the structure at Creative Community Playground.

Still, John Lettow said the city has taken steps to lessen potential exposure. Workers have removed some mulch in what Lettow called a "hot spot," and each year the city applies a sealer to the wood, which is thought to lessen arsenic leaching.

"We've contacted our insurance carrier," Lettow said "They say keep doing what you're doing."

In Hernando County, Brooksville City Manager Richard Anderson said the game plan was much the same: Periodically seal the city's two sets of equipment and eventually replace it with something else.

The status quo also is the game plan in Tarpon Springs, where the Discovery Playground has been closed for a year due to concerns about arsenic leaching. There are no plans to remove or reopen the playground, said Tonya Wise, administrative assistant to Paul Smith, the city's public services administrator.

"At some point we're going to have to decide what to do," she said. "Right now we haven't even thought about it."

In Treasure Island, where the city has three sites with arsenic-treated wooden play sets, city officials recently decided to replace them. The idea is to replace the equipment on the city's own timetable before a government directive takes any discretion out of the hands of city officials, said Don Hambidge, director of public works.

Said Hambidge: "We may as well just bite the bullet, get rid of it and not worry about it."

-- Times staff writer Julie Hauserman and researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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