Six months ago, a Toronto environmental group issued test results indicating that 60 per cent of public playgrounds tested in Montreal had arsenic levels in the sand that were above federal guidelines designed to protect human health.

The group, Environmental Defence Canada, randomly chose playgrounds from seven cities across the country to test for arsenic leaching into the sand from wooden play structures treated with a preservative, chromated copper arsenate (CCA).

Five playgrounds were tested in Montreal - four of them in LaSalle and the fifth in Ste. Anne de Bellevue. Two of the LaSalle parks, Riverside and Leroux, and the Ste. Anne park tested well above 12 parts per million, the federal soil quality guideline for inorganic arsenic.

Yesterday, the group issued a statement saying cities across Canada were not doing enough to protect children from arsenic exposure in playgrounds. The group said Toronto and Ottawa were taking action, but Halifax, Vancouver, Edmonton and Winnipeg were dragging their feet and Montreal had not responded to requests for information on measures it might be taking.

But chairperson Manon Barbe said the borough council hired a laboratory to test soil in the four parks this summer. Those tests results came in this week, she said, and they were reassuring enough that the borough council has decided there is no need to test other parks.

"Some had no traces of arsenic at all, and others had traces but they were well below the (federal) norms," she said.

(Arsenic can occur naturally in bedrock and leach into soil or water. Urban and agricultural soil concentrations average between four and six ppm.)

Barbe added that all play structures made of pressure-treated wood had been painted with an oil-based sealant which greatly reduces chances of arsenic escaping. She said new sand is added every summer.

Jennifer Foulds, of Environmental Defence Canada, said the different test results are likely due to different methodologies. Barbe said multiple samples of surface soil and sand were taken in LaSalle parks. But the tests done for EDC took only one sample per park, collected adjacent to the structure and at a depth of seven to 10 inches.

"Arsenic tends to settle in the sand or soil," Foulds said, "so we think it's better to dig deeper to test. Sand doesn't stay where it is; kids run around in it and dig in it."

The EDC recommends parents keep children away from CCA-treated wood, and always wash their hands after they have touched it. Cities or private owners of CCA-treated structures should have them sealed, and then replace sand or soil around these structures after they have been sealed, Foulds said.