Williams gets N.C. Pediatric Society award

Dr. Luanne Williams, a toxicologist with the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch of the Division of Public Health, has received a 2006 Good for Kids award from the N.C. Pediatric Society.

The award recognizes individuals and organizations that initiate or promote a community or statewide effort to improve the health and well-being of kids of all ages. This award was given to Williams because of her work with the Pediatric Society, the N.C. Health Services Commission and legislators regarding the dangers to children of wood treated with copper chromated arsenate (CCA). Williams and the Environmental Epidemiology team presented science-based information about CCA and its effect on children, answered questions from legislators, and dealt with challenges from industry groups.

The General Assembly subsequently passed the School Children’s Health Act, which will require North Carolina schools to seal arsenic-treated (CCA) wood used in school structures, and added a rule to the Day Care rules that also requires sealing of CCA treated wood play structures, decks and fences that are accessible to children and making the soil underneath such structures inaccessible to children to protect them from arsenic poisoning. The EPA has found that using penetrating wood sealants—which is actually normal maintenance for outdoor wood structures—can decrease arsenic leaching up to 90 percent.

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Last Modified: July 28, 2006