Within a month of installing a CCA treated wood deck, family begins suffering unexplained illnesses

From: michele
To: steve@getipm.com
Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2003 3:09 AM
Subject: Child poisoned by cca wood deck and diagnoised

To whom it may concern this is a letter I sent to the EPA. regarding are health effects from a leaking not leaching cca wood deck. Sorry it is a it has been e-mailed to the government a few times.

The photo is of our hand rail, before the rain hit it , it was white.

We have had many test done , segmented hair, 24 hour urines countless blood test, and more, what they show was high inorganic arsenic, and chromium, and we live by no industry to explain this. My child is six years old, and has numbness in her hands and feet, she is unable to print well, yet last year she had no problems, doing so.

She is not well, nor are we and am outraged that we had not been told about the dangers of using this product. As I am heart broken to read the names of the so many gone, AND FOR WHAT. If anyone has any advice on how I may find help for my daughter, it would be gratefully appreciated.

regards Michele L


TO. Dang, Ph.D, MPH
Senior Scientist, Antimicrobials Division(7510C)
Office of Pesticide Programs, U S EPA
Tel: 703-308-6216 Fax: 703-308-6466
Email: dang.winston@epa.gov

Dear Dr Dang,

Thank you for speaking to me on the phone.  Thank you for the contacts at the ATSDR. I have called Dr. Chou and left a message, as well as Dr. Sharon Wilbur regarding our Chromium levels.

We had built a CCA wood deck in July 2002. All of August, my daughter, my husband, myself and my dog (now deceased), practically lived on this deck, as we live in a condo without a yard. The timber on the deck was very white when it was first built and seemed to have a light dust covering it.

Early in August, I noticed that my daughter did not look well and I Also felt a sore throat and my eyes were burning. I felt unwell when I was on the deck at times. My daughter developed sores in her mouth around the same time. A few days later, I noticed that my daughter had a rash on he back of her legs after sitting on the stairs of the deck with the dog.

Nothing helped, so I took a photograph of it to show the Dr. She said the rash burned. On August 13th, I was watering plants on the deck and noticed burning pains on my skin, that later developed into rashes. I had difficulty breathing and abdominal pain. On the 15th of August, I was vomiting and there was blood in the vomit and I had diarrhea. On the 16th, I felt pain everywhere, I was very weak and had abdominal and leg pain and muscle spasms in the lower parts of my legs. I did not suspect the deck at the time because it appeared normal. I thought we all had a virus because we all had 'flu like symptoms. On the 17th of August while I was on the deck. I had a sore throat. When I touched the plants to move them, I felt a burning pain, later I had nausea and my feet were swollen and I still had spasms. On the 19th of August I went to the hospital with difficulty breathing, chest pain, nausea. On this same day, my 6 year old daughter told me that she felt very sick and had a headache. 

Tuesday August 20th, I woke up in pain and spasms and found it difficult to walk. By this time, my child had changed radically. She acted as if she had suddenly developed ADHD, a brain tumor, or had sustained a head injury.

She has always been a really easy going child with a calm disposition. She showed no fear of the traffic and would race down the streets on her bike, she could not concentrate or listen to anything we spoke about. She would either sleep too much, scream and run when she was awake and not hold still for anyone. We took her to the hospital, I called her neurologist, worried that something terrible was going wrong. She is a very bright child, reading at a grade 3 level and entering the gifted program, and one night all she could do was babble and she is six years old.

On August 23rd, I was back in the hospital, now with a numb hand, numbness from my feet to my knees, with tingling sensations. They noticed that my left pupil was dilated. On Aug. 24th, my daughter started having seizures, and once again we took her to the emerge, and I was still ill. On August 25th the Emergency Dept. contacted a neurologist for me. I was out of the hospital with my hand still numb, my feet still numb and tingling and I also had a headache.

On August 26th a dog we've had for 8 years, a very loyal pet had a behavior change and she bit me. The dog had been vomiting, had bloody loose stools and I noticed that day that she was starting to lose most of her coat. On the same day, I was back in the Emergency, not understanding why my hands and feet were still numb and felt like they were burning. These symptoms continue to this day. My daughter was still extremely hyper and my husband was complaining of dizziness and headaches and he never gets headaches.

On August 27th, I had a hyda scan. The physician noticed that I was bleeding too much from the needle, and I told someone should check out my clotting factor. I had noticed that I was bleeding too much when they were rehydrating me on my other Emergency visits. The other physicians also noticed this when they were trying to diagnose the numbness by pricking me with small needles.

On Aug. 29th, the neurologist ordered L.P., MRI, ENG's and stated she felt that I had Arsenic poisoning, or MS. On the 30th, I could no longer use the stairs. On the 31st, my child had many seizures in a row, dark swollen red circles under her eyes, and was complaining of headache. The dog had deteriorated to the point that I had to hand feed her and all my husband could do was sleep, because of his headaches and dizziness.

On the 3rd of September, we took the dog to the vet. He suggested we put her down. When I asked the vet about the deck, he said she could have Arsenic poisoning. The same evening we took our daughter to The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), she had an EEG done in the morning and it was abnormal. It showed slowing of brain waves which indicated that she had experienced many seizures. They diagnosed her with complex-partial seizures and started her on Tegitratol. On the 7th of September, we took our daughter by ambulance to the hospital. She was still having seizures, was very confused, she had more rashes and she complained that her feet felt like they were sleeping. I understood this because my feet and lower parts of my legs were tingling and I also had a rash. Sept. 8th I spent the night in the General Hospital, with the worst headache I had every experienced, burning of my extremities and feeling confused and the Dr. suspected Arsenic poisoning, or MS, he was not sure which. On the 9th of Sept I had my blood tests drawn for inorganic Arsenics and my Urine for Chromium and started to look for the cause of all our symptoms. The only thing that was new in our lives was the CCA deck we had recently installed, and a central air unit

I spoke to Dr Napki, World Health Organization and Poison Control. We closed off the back doors and said we would not use the deck again until we were sure. On Sept. 12th, I had more blood and Arsenic tests done.

On Sept 14, my child, Tessa, developed a bad rash, was sick to her stomach and still hyper. We were tired and worried, we went back to the hospital again, we did her Arsenic levels, she was taken off the Tegrital. Sept 17th I still suffered from headaches, numbness, swollen eyes and a dilated pupil. I felt I had lost cognitive abilities, which was very concerning. My daughter's behavior was starting to improve. On the 18th of Sept, I was back in the hospital, things had not changed since. On Sept 20th we saw my daughters neurologist who stated that since she had febrile seizures as an infant, he felt her threshold was low and her exposure to Chromium and Arsenic had made her a lot worse. There was an evening that she did not know how to speak.

On Sept 28th, my daughter and I are still sick. I had been out sampling the deck the day before without her and once again vomited blood and suffered from severe nausea and headache. I can no longer touch this deck without experiencing a rash and severe symptoms. Cr. is a sensitizer.

By the end of September I know that my Chromium urine levels are 12.7 and my Chromium create 1.87. To-day I learned that my daughter's Chromium create level is 2.97 and her blood inorganic Arsenic level was 10.7 nmol-l after weeks of being away from this deck.

Canadian Health and Welfare state there is no safe level of these toxins. I understand that the EPA holds a similar view. Toxicology has confirmed that I have Arsenic and Chromium poisoning / Arsenic and Chromium skin and inhalation rate / I am still awaiting a toxicology report on my daughter, and hair analyst. As you know this is very frustrating and concerning. The Canadian Cancer Society's position states pressure treated lumber, CCA contains two substances that are known carcinogens.

Best Regards,

Michele L