[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Railroad Ties



On Tue, 26 Jun 2001 10:21:16 -0400, Claude  Genest
<genest@together.net> wrote:

>
>I ended up using old railroad ties to terrace a planting area behind the
>house.
>
>They are quite old and faded - How bad of a health risk would I be taking if
>I planted edibles in those beds ?
>
>Would it help if I waited a year or two while the sun/rain continues to
>leach out the toxins ?

Paint a nontoxic sealer (exterior latex-acrilic or acrilic-oil
housepaint) on the insides of the beds, of possible; or just go ahead
and use them as they are. They are probably the old creosote-treated
ties (coal tar creosote - now outlawed - still less dangerous than
pressure-treated wood - which is outlawed in the state of Vermont).

They have probably leached out most of what would be considered
dangerous that is contained in the outer few inches of the wood; if
you cut them to them to the middle you might still get a creosote
smell from them - so, to avoid that.

LL

L.F.London ICQ#27930345 lflondon@mindspring.com
www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech  london@ibiblio.org