RENEGADE GARDENER™
The lone voice of horticultural reason
“Vegetables grown in beds edged with copper chromium arsenate-treated wood are unhealthy to consume.”line
No, turns out they’re all fine. Despite all the hoopla, a study just concluded by the University of Minnesota shows conclusively that there is zero concern when it comes to eating vegetables grown in beds and boxes made from CCA-treated planks or timbers.
CCA came into use in the early ’80s. Any treated wood in your house, on your deck, in play equipment, or girdling a garden is probably treated with CCA. It’s now banned by the EPA (final phase-out by 2004) and that’s a good thing, but there is no need to panic when it comes to garden use. Vegetables grown in treated boxes built twenty years ago (or three weeks from now) pose no health hazard relative to CCA contamination.
Don Engebretson
The Renegade Gardener