In message , Baz
writes
chris French wrote in
k:

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.

True, it might not.

As always, be safe, not sorry.

There is no such thing as absolute safety.

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.

Oh! think of the children !!

Would you REALLY put your familly at risk?

Yup, do it everyday.

No matter how
small the risk is?



Yes, my family is a risk every day, nothing is absolutely safe. Everyone
makes such judgements (generally quite badly) about the risks of their
activities. We make judgements about how to spend our money, risk might
be part of that.


The car we most use as a family is over 10 years old, so a new car might
be marginally safer for the passengers, should I be buying a new car
because of that small increased risk?

We have a pond in our garden, it is uncovered, our children are 6 and 10
and old enough to understand about the dangers, but there is some small
risk that one could fall, bash their head on the surrounding wall (which
they like to stand on), knock them selves unconscious, fall into the
pond and drown. Should we spend the money to fill in the pond and remove
the wall?

Should we spend the money to cut down the trees in the garden, in case
they climb them and fall out and break their necks.


--
Chris French