Abstract |
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) is aware of increased concerns raised by the general public, municipal and state governments, and state/federal regulatory agencies regarding the safety of young children contacting arsenic and chromium residues while playing on Chromated Copper Arsenate (CCA)-treated wood playground structures and decks. Because of this concern, OPPs Antimicrobials Division (AD), with the recommendation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)s Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) and the assistance of the Office of Research and Development (ORD), has conducted a probabilistic exposure assessment entitled the Stochastic Human Exposure and Dose Simulation Model for the Wood Preservative Exposure Scenario (SHEDSWood). SHEDS-Wood provides exposures reported as average daily doses (ADDs) and lifetime average daily doses (LADDs). Childrens exposures may occur through touching CCA-treated wood and CCA-contaminated soil near treated wood structures, mouthing hands after touching CCA-treated wood, and ingesting CCA-contaminated soil. Since EPA has determined that the arsenic and chromium components of CCA pose the most significant toxicity concerns in comparison to copper, which is not a recognized or suspected carcinogen, AD focused on evaluating both potential adverse short-term (1-day to 1- month) and intermediate-term (1 to 6 months) non cancer risks and the lifetime cancer risks from both total arsenic and chromium as Cr (VI). This was done so in using the exposures modeled in SHEDS-Wood. It is also important to recognize that risks that are presented in a probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) are defined as feasible detrimental outcome(s) of an activity or action. |