In May 2001, the Environmental Working Group and the Healthy Building Network formally petitioned the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to ban CCA-treated wood for use in playground equipment and to review the safety of the treated wood in general.

The environmental activist-led siege against CCA-treated wood is now center stage before the CPSC. On March 17 and 18, 2003, the CPSC listened to arguments for and against a petition. In response, CPSC completed studies to measure the leaching of arsenic from CCA-treated wood to humans who come in contact with the wood. The studies, completed in Washington, D.C., found that “dislodgeable arsenic levels” from wood decks and children's play sets was 7.7 and 7.6 micrograms, respectively. Based on assumptions from its own risk assessment, CPSC determined that a child who plays on CCA-treated wood has an increased risk of two to 100 per million of developing lung or bladder cancer.
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