Toxic homes: Can the wood in your house make you sick?

REXVILLE, Ind. - Imagine the pride in yourself while building your ideal home by hand. Then once you move in, you learn your dream home was built with a nightmare of materials.

The McGuire family began getting lesions, warts and other illnesses during construction, but the sickness was magnified once they took residence inside their home. The family went to a doctor who performed some tests, "He had done a urine sample, and my wife had come back with toxic levels of arsenic," said Arthur McGuire.

The McGuires eventually discovered that the wood they used to build their home was treated with the poison most commonly used to kill rats, arsenic. The family was using lumber commonly referred to as "salt-treated wood." The reality is that no salt is used during the curing process of the lumber. Instead, manufacturers used a combination called CCA or Chromium, Copper and Arsenic.

The chemical combination is to make wood less susceptible to insect and fungus damage. The wood treated this way is often green tinted and is carried at lumber and hardware stores throughout the United States. Wood treated with CCA should have this sticker attached.

The chemical combination for curing wood for construction is legal, but according the EPA, the process is not supposed to be used for playground equipment or residences.

As of December 31, 2003, the EPA's website reads: "no wood treater or manufacturer may treat wood with CCA for residential uses, with certain exceptions."

The McGuires left their home and bought a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) mobile trailer to reside, but their illness began getting worse, "Well, we learned some of the FEMA trailers have high levels of formaldehyde," said Arthur.

They had purchased a similar model used in the Hurricane Katrina ravaged area of New Orleans, "I thought everything was coming to an end… I've shed a few tears," explained McGuire.

The family secured the basement of their 4,000 square foot home and reside there after moving from the FEMA trailer.

Now the EPA is on McGuire's property cleaning up burn areas that the family had used to dispose of scrap wood during construction, "This was a 10x10 area in one spot and the other was a 10x10, and they started digging down about six inches to a foot," explained Arthur. "They found arsenic levels at that point still so they had to dig deeper."

The contaminated dirt is being hauled away and replaced with clean. McGuire said the clean-up crews have dug as deep as 36 inches in a few areas. The clean-up is expected to last into next week.

Through all the family has been through, Arthur hopes to be able to salvage his home one day.