Living on land that was a sawmill - a potential health hazard

[bobthebaby]

We have had an offer accepted on a house, sold our house and are ready to confirm. In NZ you get this big file of all the land information relating to your property. It is a new subdivision, and so has lots of paperwork, which I kind of understand. Under hazards it says that the land used to be a sawmill, but you have to make your own investigations about contamination.

I remember seeing something on TV about men who worked in a sawmill (not this one, and maybe not in NZ) and now all have cancer because of a chemical they dipped the wood in. This would be about the same length of time ago that the sawmill was operational.

Am I overeacting to be worried?

Fantastic. Would you believe that 60 houses are built on the land and I am the first person to make an enquiry to the environment agency! We don't have to complete until 20 Jan so the weekend would be great SueW

A Google search eventually through up this news item which metions that, amongst other things, a saw mill was once on the site and used arsenic in the production of road pegs.

I would never have thought to be worried about a saw mill BTW.

Hi bobthebaby,

I work in health and safety and one of the industries I deal with is woodworking. I think the chemical you are concerned about is chrome-copper-arsenic solutions, which was (and still is, I think) used to treat 'raw' timber. Problem obviously is when the chemical soaks into the ground, and often the treatment was carried out in the open or the treated timber was allowed to dry in the open.
I'm not in the office today so can't access all the information available to answer your question, but I'm in tomorrow so could try then to find out some more for you.

Great service - woke up to it this morning. Thanks.