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Arsenic in Playgrounds Remains a Children’s Health Threat

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Our neighborhood just installed a new playground. I took my three young grandchildren there Monday. Nathan, the 4 year old is having an allergic reaction to something. His face is all swollen and red. It started when we came home from the playground and it has gotten worse. His eyes are swollen shut and his face is swollen and red. I called and found out that the wood is pressure treated. Nathan is taking benedryl but it doesn't seem to be helping so he is going back to the doctor today. How can I find out if the pressure treated wood has caused this problem?

Dottie of FL 8:15AM December 24, 2009

Great information Nancy. Now, permit me to " pie square" it. (An excerpt from my book, Misinformed About Food..www.rkinformedliving.com).
David Wallinga, MD, for the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy (“Playing Chicken: Avoiding Arsenic in Your Meat,” April 2006): “Estimates are that at least 70 percent( of chickens) have been fed arsenic. Some of that arsenic stays in chicken meat.”
Wallinga later adds: “We estimate from 1.7 to 2.2 million pounds of roxarsone, a single arsenic feed additive, are given each year to chickens. Arsenic is an element—it doesn’t degrade or disappear. Arsenic subsequently contaminates much of the 26 to 55 billion pounds of litter or waste generated each year by the U.S. broiler chicken industry, likely also contaminating the communities where that waste is generated or dispersed. In the chicken-producing town of Prairie Grove, MO, house dust in every one of 31 homes examined was found to contain at least two kinds of arsenic also found in chicken litter.”
Now, imagine children in Prarie Grove, or anywhere else, playing with this stuff in the playground.
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www.rkinformedliving.com

Randy Karp- Author: Misinformed about Food of TX 7:07PM November 28, 2009