The Prager's Story - from Birth Defects to Birth of a Web site

One Family Learns the Hard Way the Risks of Prenatal Exposure to CCA Wood

July 17, 2003


Editor’s Note: Many of the visitors to our site write to us and ask: "Why do you do this anyway?" and "what motivates you to keep up your Web site?" The answer is simple: we want to do everything we can to ensure that consumers know what the risks are regarding exposure to CCA treated wood. .

We firmly believe that if we had been properly warned about the hazards of this product, we would not have purchased or handled CCA lumber products, and our daughter would not have been born with birth defects. Period. We do not want another family to have to go through what we did because of ignorance about the real risks associated with this toxic product

Ultimately, this means that arsenic treated CCA wood will have to be banned and banned permanently, as the programs past and present to warn consumers about the potential hazards of exposure to CCA wood are simply not working. In fact, if the Consumer Awareness Programs had worked, we would not have been exposed. Instead, we, like many other CCA victims, wish that someone had told us what was really in the treated wood we bought.

We feel that the excerpt below tells our story of CCA exposure in an concise and factual manner. While it is brief account, we would rather let the attorneys detail what happened on our behalf, as this is still a very emotional subject for us to recount. The following is from the actual federal law suit filed in December, 2002 by Beyond Pesticides, the Communication Workers of America, The Center for Environmental Health, Joe & Rosanne Prager, et. al. vs. the EPA . You can learn more about the Beyond Pesticides vs. EPA suit in this Gainesville Sun newspaper article, or on the Beyond Pesticides Web site here.

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"Joseph S. Prager and Rosanne M. Prager are individuals who were exposed to CCA-treated wood while working on a home improvement project. They believe that they and their then unborn child were injured as a result of their exposure to CCA.

In late 1993 and early 1994, they worked on a deck and fencing project using CCA-treated wood. When they purchased the wood at Home Depot and Lowes stores in Gainesville, Florida, there were no warning labels or tags of any sort, and they were totally unaware that use of the wood posed any health hazards. As a result, despite the fact that Rosanne Prager was pregnant at the time, and was taking many other precautions to protect her pregnancy, they handled the wood without gloves, masks or protective clothing, and sawed the wood in a closed garage, resulting in the inhalation of treated wood sawdust.

Joseph and Rosanne Prager suffered various symptoms during the period they were working with the CCA-treated wood, including joint and muscle pains and anemia. In November, 1994, their daughter was born with a cleft lip and cleft palate. She has undergone several surgeries, and currently requires orthodontic treatment and will require bone grafts to her jaw as a result of these birth defects. There was no family history of these birth defects.

When EPA determined in the1984 RPAR review of the wood preservatives that arsenical wood preservatives pose a risk of birth defects, it relied in part on studies of laboratory animals which produced offspring with cleft lip and cleft palate defects after exposure to arsenic.

As a result of their CCA wood exposures, the Pragers started the Web site, BANCCA.ORG (http://www.bancca.org) to inform other consumers of the potential hazards associated with CCA-treated wood. Their Web site now receives over 15,000 visitors per month worldwide, and is continuously updated with new information on the CCA and treated wood controversy."


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