5/20/2008

Choose your poison

Fort Reno in the District's Northwest was closed when satellite imagery noted grass discolored in a way indicating the presence of arsenic.

Once, when he had me slapping (British-made) creosote on his fenceposts in Scotland, Grandfather told me that creosote's secret ingredient in keeping bugs at bay was arsenic.

Meanwhile, all those good people who spend so many hours sitting on their arsenic-treated decks have been spared a stroll over buried arsenic deposits at a Civil war site; the NPS closed the place.

Oh wait a minute, never mind: reopened.

"According to the D.C. Department of Health, arsenic is usually only harmful when ingested."

Is public health to science what public history is to history?