Which trees produce sawdust that is toxic?

Answer 1

Pressure-treated wood contains a chemical called CCA, which stands for chromium, copper, and arsenic. Studies done of sawdust produced from CCA-treated wood has found that it takes very little to covert virtually all of the chromium into the most toxic form, and we all know that arsenic is highly poisonous. To make matters worse, both of those chemicals are known to cause cancer as well. A single board contains enough arsenic to kill 80 people.

Below is a link to a news article relating how only a week's worth of exposure to such sawdust caused a person to have long-term side effects even fifteen years later! Here is a list of other incidents:

- A New York man swelled up and stopped breathing while he was making a deck.
- An Indiana man vomited several pints of blood after making picnic tables.
- An Alabama man got a splinter that caused his hand to swell up like a lobster claw.
- A California man got a headache that lasted five days after boring holes in the wood.
- A Florida man lost two prize race horses after they ate CCA-treated fencing.
- A Wisconsin family suffered seizures, blackouts and massive hair loss after burning it.

Some CCA-treated wood is used to build playground equipment and picnic tables (the splinters are no healthier than the sawdust). Several lawsuits have been filed, and some playgrounds have been fenced off, but there is LOTS of this wood out in the public, and most of them have no idea how dangerous it is. Be careful!

Answer 2

Any sawdust can be bad if inhaled, but I know of none that are toxic. Something like poison ivy would be particularly bad, but it wouldn't kill you, you just would wish you were dead.