All Departments Bush wants state to stop using arsenic in wood Reports of arsenic leaching out of treated lumber close playground. The poison in your back yard Arsenic is in the pressure-treated wood used to build decks, docks, gazebos and children's play sets. The state makes its own pressure-treated lumber at a plant in Raiford.
State agencies use it for park boardwalks, highway guardrails and other outdoor structures.
Also Tuesday, responding to a special report on pressure-treated lumber in Sunday's St. Petersburg Times, Tarpon Springs temporarily closed its popular Discovery Playground, which was built by community volunteers in 1997. Tests by a laboratory hired by the Times turned up arsenic in the soil near five wooden community playgrounds. All of the tests showed arsenic at levels above the state's safety limit, prompting a flood of calls from worried parents to local officials all over Tampa Bay. At Tarpon Springs' Discovery Playground, the Times test found the arsenic level in the soil near a playground post was more than five times the state's safety limit. The city may reopen the playground, or build a new one, after officials gather more information.