I bought a couple of pieces of plywood today. You know the stuff: Useful, made of wood, pretty boring, kinda flat, deadly. Wait, what? Yep. Says so right on it:
Warning: This product may generate wood dust, a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer.
Granted, this was the pressure-treated outdoor kind, so it isn’t inconceivable that it might have something (or several somethings) in it that are on the Proposition 65 list. However:
- Plywood doesn’t spontaneously generate wood dust. I guess “This product produces potential carcinogens if you attack it with power tools” was deemed insufficiently snappy.
- Wood dust isn’t a “chemical” in even the loosest possible sense of that term.
- If you’re simpleminded enough to lick sawdust, it’s probably a mercy if it poisons you.
I’m still not sure who to call about disposing of this pile of hazardous waste on my shop floor…
You’ve probably long since disposed of it…. Check out the plywood manufacturer’s MSDS. FWIW, all of the MSDS disposal sections I’ve looked have this BS:
“You must test your waste using methods described in 40 CFR Part 261 to determine if it meets applicable
definitions of hazardous wastes….
No EPA Waste Numbers are applicable for this product’s components….
Dispose of waste material according to Local, State, Federal….”
Maybe using the stuff as mulch is not “disposal” and is instead reuse and hence “green” ;-)