Any idea what the compound was or what the exposure rate was? I remember
years ago when I was still a chemist being told that benzene was considered
dangerous but toluene (benzene plus CH3 replacing one H) was not. My
teacher claimed that the only definite benzene deaths were people who worked
in the benzene production industry i.e. having high, prolonged exposures.

Of course it's always possible that the problem is groundwater contamination
and the like but given the amount of creosote used per annum, if it was that
bad, surely we'd all be keeling over by now?

Paul DS.