[Community_garden] arsenic wood

[yarrow at sfo.com]

At 10:23 AM -0700 6/18/07, Eliza Sutton wrote:
>Hello,
>   i coordinate community gardens in providence, ri.  my question is:
>   people want to know if the wood that divides the plots has arsenic
>   in it (the wood is many years old, and noone remembers what wood
>   was used.)  Would the thing to do be to test the soil around the wood
>   for arsenic, or is there a way to test the wood itself?

Around here, the pressure-treated wood has a slightly greenish tinge 
and has regularly spaced holes (shaped like staples, long narrow 
rectangles about half an inch long) where the preservatives were 
injected into the wood. If you've seen it once, it's instantly 
recognizable. Maybe you can ask a lumberyard or landscpae contractor 
where you can see some old pressure-treated stock (which, IIRC, is no 
longer legal to sell, but which many people have used for decks etc.).

I *assume* that the wood that does not look like this is not pressure 
treated with arsenic compounds, because I did not think this was a 
DIY type of treatment. Anyone know?