Woodworking and Pesticides

[mudfoot]

My dad had an overgrown red tip photinia come down in the storms here in Raleigh last week. I’ve heard this solid wood is good for turning so I was thinking of using it for that. However, I know for a fact this tree was sprayed with Sevin pesticide back in the 90s (nothing commercial grade, just whatever was available at Ace back then). Although this was largely a “leaf treatment,” I saw an article that stated pesticides stay in the wood forever.

My question is whether this wood is safe to work. Before I remembered it had been treated, I was actually thinking about making some spoons. Surely some of the wood or logs we acquire aren’t completely free from chemicals. Just wondering whether the risk is high…

 

[cyclopentadiene]

Modern day pesticides are relatively safe and Sevin dust used over 30 years ago would have degraded long ago.
Exposure to fine particles of wood dust while sanding is far more harmful than any modern day pesticide.
The LD 50 for Carbaryl is very high 250 - 850 mg/Kg. Is is likely a carcinogen (hence animal tests are not confirmed) as indicated by EPA. Aspirin has a LD50 of 200mg/kg, household bleach is 850mg/Kg and caffeine is 140mg/kg for comparison.
As a chemist, nothing is pesticide free, plasticizer free, or caffeine free. We can detect down to less than 1 part per billion of most carcinogens in our labs and we observe all of these environmental contaminants in everything at some level. The term organic is a marketing ploy to charge more.

 

[mudfoot]

Modern day pesticides are relatively safe and Sevin dust used over 30 years ago would have degraded long ago.
Exposure to fine particles of wood dust while sanding is far more harmful than any modern day pesticide.
The LD 50 for Carbaryl is very high 250 - 850 mg/Kg. Is is likely a carcinogen (hence animal tests are not confirmed) as indicated by EPA. Aspirin has a LD50 of 200mg/kg, household bleach is 850mg/Kg and caffeine is 140mg/kg for comparison.
As a chemist, nothing is pesticide free, plasticizer free, or caffeine free. We can detect down to less than 1 part per billion of most carcinogens in our labs and we observe all of these environmental contaminants in everything at some level. The term organic is a marketing ploy to charge more.

Thanks for the informative response. I think I’ll take my chances with it.

 

[sandfarm]

Sevin has a one day window before you can harvest a crop and eat it.
Besides if I am correct, Kevin is a contact pesticide and does not enter the plant.

 

[smallboat]

Sevin has a one day window before you can harvest a crop and eat it.
Besides if I am correct, Kevin is a contact pesticide and does not enter the plant.

My uncle Keven was a contact pesticide. If we pestered him, he’d “contact” you.

(sorry, I know it was a simple typo but the image was too hard to let go by)

 

[mike_wood]

Modern day pesticides are relatively safe and Sevin dust used over 30 years ago would have degraded long ago.
Exposure to fine particles of wood dust while sanding is far more harmful than any modern day pesticide.
The LD 50 for Carbaryl is very high 250 - 850 mg/Kg. Is is likely a carcinogen (hence animal tests are not confirmed) as indicated by EPA. Aspirin has a LD50 of 200mg/kg, household bleach is 850mg/Kg and caffeine is 140mg/kg for comparison.
As a chemist, nothing is pesticide free, plasticizer free, or caffeine free. We can detect down to less than 1 part per billion of most carcinogens in our labs and we observe all of these environmental contaminants in everything at some level. The term organic is a marketing ploy to charge more.

Isn’t about everything in American business a marketing ploy? What about the abandoned apple orchard in the mountains of NC that was declared an EPA hazardous waste site due to the accumulation of some,of the most hazardous pesticides ever sold - aldrin, diedrin, etc? Thousands of tons of arsenic based pesticides were sprayed on agricultural fields in NC. Your comparisons are specious as no one gets aspirin or bleach on their food products. Some modern pesticides are so biologically active they are used in grams/acre. Maybe we should not be so dismissive about others concerns about thousands of tons of biocide being sprayed on crops. I do not purchase organic food but understand other’s concerns.

 

[cyclopentadiene]

Isn’t about everything in American business a marketing ploy? What about the abandoned apple orchard in the mountains of NC that was declared an EPA hazardous waste site due to the accumulation of some,of the most hazardous pesticides ever sold - aldrin, diedrin, etc? Thousands of tons of arsenic based pesticides were sprayed on agricultural fields in NC. Your comparisons are specious as no one gets aspirin or bleach on their food products. Some modern pesticides are so biologically active they are used in grams/acre. Maybe we should not be so dismissive about others concerns about thousands of tons of biocide being sprayed on crops. I do not purchase organic food but understand other’s concerns.

I agree with you pesticides used decades ago are bad players, especially the chlorinated ones as they do not break down in the environment. The science was not available in the 1950s and 60s to know the impact. These materials are nonexistent in terms of usage on a global scale for the past 30 years.