old railway sleepers

[brokenmummy]

He everyone

Am totally new to gardening and have just had our concrete back garden landscaped with raised beds around turf. The raised beds are made from concrete blocks topped with reclaimed sleepers all the way around, ranging from half a foot to two feet high.

They are old sleepers but have just found out they may be toxic/carcinogenic - should I be very worried? I have a one year old who will be playing outside (hopefully) a lot this summer. I also wanted to plant herbs in one of the beds.

Does anyone know how real a danger this is, why, and what I should do about it?

This wasn't a cheap garden project and I really don't want to have to rip it all out and waste all that time and money - plus it looks great!

thanks

Hi yourself.

The old creosoted sleepers carry a slight risk, but as the chemist at a company I used to work for said 'you'd need to eat enough of it and still be unlucky to get cancer'. Nowadays (since 2003ish, I think) they're treated with a 'safe' preservative, so there's no need to rip them out.

Hello,

EU regulations do state that these railway sleepers are only a danger when in frequent skin contact. You can get more information on this here www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2003/721/contents/made. If you were thinking about taking them out, you may want to check www.sleeper-supplies.co.uk for safe alternatives to replace the old ones with. They have a range of new untreated sleepers that may be suitable.

The only thing you need to watch out with when using genuine creosoted sleepers is that on hot days small amounts of tar will appear on the surface of the wood. If it gets on your clothes it's a bugger to get out.

However given the special weather we're having recently, it's unlikley to happen anytime soon!

If they are creosoted you're not meant to use the bed for planting veg.

Thanks everyone. I just forked out a fortune for them so won't be removing them unless I have to!

Tar doesn't sound nice - am painting the concrete walls that they're sat on white, so might end up with nice tar stains on them!

So if I shouldn't have frequent skin contact, does that rule out using them as benches?