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Previous by Date: Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Advice about laboratory attire Date: Thursday, March 10, 2022 at 8:50:09 PM Author: Hugo Gerald Schmidt <hugo.schmidt**At_Symbol_Here**CARES.CAM.AC.UK> |
Next by Date: Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines (7 articles) Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2022 04:53:12 -0500 Author: Eugene Ngai |
Dan,
Re your question: Can working preserved wood treated with copper chromated arsenate (CCA) with power tools create arsine at low levels?
I highly doubt that the physical fiction of a metal saw on wood could reduce the arsenate salts in the treated wood. (Could be studied using a ball mill.) But even if somehow it did, I would expect the pyrophoric arsine to immediately react with oxygen in the air.
That said, there are still issues here. First, wood dust is a known carcinogen, so professional, and hobbyist, carpenters should use dust collection systems in woodshops. Second, wood treated with copper chromated arsinate will result in dust with added carcinogenic properties from the chromium and the arsenic. While CCA treated wood has been used since the 1940s and the EPA states that such wood does not pose risks of concern to the general public, the EPA does warn that there are issues for workers. (They do now recommend alternatives for consumers.)
It is interesting to note that chromium(III) is considered an essential nutrient, but chromium(IV), as in CCA, is carcinogenic and toxic.
Craig
Craig A. Merlic
Professor of Chemistry, UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Executive Director, UC Center for Laboratory Safety
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1569
Voice: 310-825-5466
From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU> on behalf of Daniel Kuespert <000015c40c7f7b23-dmarc-request**At_Symbol_Here**LISTS.PRINCETON.EDU>
Reply-To: Daniel Kuespert <dkuespert**At_Symbol_Here**protonmail.com>
Date: Thursday, March 10, 2022 at 3:49 AM
To: <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines (7 articles)
Frederick County is the next one over from my house. The high-schooler is being criminally charged, I'm not entirely sure what with, given that the only actual concrete thing he did was bring a bottle of bleach to school in his backpack.
I imagine Frederick County is a bit sensitized to unconventional weapons because of its history with Fort Detrick, which was the center of the US offensive biological weapons program (abandoned during the Nixon administration). There's a few buildings at Detrick that they haven't torn down because they can't think of an effective way to decontaminate them.
Back on the topic of arsenic, I was asked an interesting question by a member of the public recently: Can working preserved wood treated with copper chromated arsenate (CCA) with power tools create arsine at low levels?
The questioner was interested because her husband, a carpenter, had frequently worked with CCA wood and had died of cancer apparently consistent with arsenic exposure. I had to say, theoretically yes, since you're putting energy into the system and creating smoke with who-knows-what in it, but the only real way to tell would be to do monitoring. I couldn't find any literature on the subject.
Given that CCA wood on construction sites was often so fresh that it was still wet, I'd be more concerned about skin absorption, but as a point of interest, does anyone know if there might be arsine in the smoke?
Regards,
Dan
-------------------------------------------------
Daniel Kuespert, PhD, CSP
Member, American Chemical Society (ACS)
Member, ACS Division of Chemical Health & Safety (CHAS)
Chair-elect, CHAS 2022
Associate, CCS, 2021-2022
CHAS Fellow
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