Keep kids safe. Test wooden decking and yard equipment for arsenic.

For decades, nearly all outdoor wooden structures—play sets, picnic tables, fences, decks—were made with "pressure-treated" wood injected with chromated copper arsenate (CCA)—an insecticide and preservative that is 22-percent pure arsenic, a known carcinogen that can also cause nerve damage. CCA may keep wood from rotting, but the arsenic can leach from the wood onto kids’ hands and into the soil below. Making matters worse, the arsenic leaching doesn't decrease with time, even structures 15 years old release just as much arsenic as newer ones.

With studies showing soil from 40% of US backyards and parks exceeding the EPA's Superfund levels for hazardous waste cleanup, manufacturers agreed to halt production of CCA-treated wood for home use and playgrounds beginning in 2004, though existing stock were allowed to be sold.

If your home play set or outdoor wood furniture or decking is five or more years old, or you’re considering buying used, test it, as it could be leaching arsenic. Test kits for wood and soil are $20 each from Environmental Working Group. Test during dry weather: Rain can wash surface arsenic away.

If the tests indicate there is leaching, the safest step is to replace all arsenic wood, plus the top few inches of soil or wood chips under and around it. Replace high traffic areas like railings and steps, if full replacement isn't practical. The rest should be sealed with a solid or semi-transparent deck stain.. AFM Safecoat recommends low-VOC Durostain with low-VOC Safecoat Watershield (www.afmsafecoat.com). And if you have young kids or pets, keep them away from treated wood, and don’t let them play under decks, until you have had the soil replaced. Don't eat food off of any treated surface and don’t store toys under the deck.

When shopping for new outdoor wood furniture or decking, ask retailers for proof that what you are buying is CCA-free. Look for naturally rot-resistant wood (Forest Stewardship Council certified cedar and redwood are good choices), wood composites, recycled plastics or less toxic pressure-treated lumber. To learn more about the FSC certification as well as other claims, check out Label Lookup, which compares the various labels, explains what they mean, and which you can trust.

If you end up replacing all or part of CCA-treated wood from your yard, treat it like hazardous waste and call your Sanitation Department to ask how to properly dispose of it. Never burn it and avoid sawing it up or sanding it. Inhaling arsenic dust or gas is worse than swallowing it and can cause acute poisoning. Contain any demolition dust with a tarp.