Seasonal arsenic exposure from burning chromium-copper-arsenate-treated wood.

All eight members of a rural Wisconsin family experienced recurring neurological and medical illness over three years, especially during the winter months. Arsenic, in concentrations of 12 to 87 ppm, was noted in the hair of the mother and father, and analysis of hair and fingernails of all family members demonstrated pathological levels of arsenic. For four years the five-room home had been heated with a small wood stove in which outdoor or marine plywood and wood remnants had been preferentially burned.

Formation of arsenite in lead arsenate or calcium arsenate mixtures.

Lead and calcium arsenates have been used as insecticides in the past with various adjuvants added to increase their effectiveness. Adverse health effects have been reported in industrial situations where these materials were formulated, and packaged, and occasionally used. Reduction of arsenate has been demonstrated to occur when mixtures of lime, lime sulfur, sulfur, and casein were added to lead or calcium arsenate.