chris French wrote in
:

In message , Bean
writes

Hi,
I am just about to have a new patio built on the back of my house which
will involve removing a small decking area. The decking area was built
sometime before I moved into the house 3 and a half years ago.
The decking wood looks like it could make several movable raised
planters for me to grow vegetables in on the new patio (I don't want to
put the veg in the earth as I have no idea what it has been treated with
in the past). This has the potential of saving me 70 quid per planter,
as well as reusing materials rather than throwing them out in a builders
skip.
I have been reading up on pressure treated wood and it's dangers and
obviously don't want to grow veg that could poison us.

Gut feeling here is that the likelihood of growing poisonous veg seems
small.

Is there any evidence (as opposed to www-supposing/scaremongering) that

1. There is migration of the pressure treatment chemicals into the soil
at levels that might be an issue?

2. Growing veg take it up in quantities that matter?

And so, finally to my question:
Is there a way to find out if the decking wood was treated with CCA
without sending it to a lab, and if there isn't does anyone know of a
lab that doesn't cost a fortune to test such a thing?


If you are bothered about it, line the planters with heavy duty
polythene sheeting would seem to be a sensible route forward.

That might be your belief, but might not be true.
As always, be safe, not sorry.
A few quid saved is always good but not where safety is concerned.
I am always gobsmacked when people put money in front of safety, and often
childrens safety. Would you REALLY put your familly at risk? No matter how
small the risk is?

Baz