Chip in for safety

By Dion Teasdale
CHUM Creek Primary School has received a muchneeded donation to help it improve the health and safety of its school grounds.
The school accepted a donation last week of $800 worth of environmentally friendly, chemicalfree wood composite products to replace potentially harmful timber structures and equipment.
The donation, provided by Queenslandbased company Ritewood, comes after staff and parents agreed to remove copper chrome arsenate (CCA) treated timber products from the school’s grounds.
Members of the school’s Parent Club, Linda Fabb and Kim Wandin, have been campaigning to have CCAtreated timber products removed from use across the Shire of Yarra Ranges since the beginning of the year.
They received national media attention earlier this year when, along with the Croydon Conservation Group, they raised concerns about the longterm health risks for children coming into contact with CCAtreated timber products in schools and kindergartens.
As a result of the media exposure, Ritewood contacted Ms Fabb and Ms Wandin and offered to provide a quantity of their safe wood products to Chum Creek Primary school.
Ritewood’s national marketing manager, Mark Behnecke, delivered the wood composite products, which are made using recycled components and contain no harmful chemicals, to the school last week.
“Our boss saw a report on A Current Affair about parents wanting to replace CCAtreated materials in schools and kindergartens and we decided to see if we could help out,” he said.
Ms Fabb said the donation would make the job of replacing the CCAtreated timber at the school much easier.
“A lot of these are areas that children touch often and we want to minimise their exposure to the poisons in CCAtreated timber.
“It’s fantastic that there are people in the community who value the safety of our children and the longterm future of the environment. We are very grateful to Ritewood for this donation and the benefits it will bring to our school community.”
Ms Fabb said the school was hoping to remove and replace the CCAtreated timber at a working bee early next month.
Mr Behnecke said the Ritewood composite product, which is made using saw dust, recycled plastic and bonding agents, was being used by Whitehorse City Council to replace CCAtreated timber park benches across its municipality.