By Jim O'Sullivan

Parents worried their children are playing on toxic playgrounds got at least a little comforting news last week, as Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino assured them that the little tykes would have to eat two pounds of dirt before feeling any ill effects.

But parents paying attention to a UMass-Boston study reporting that soil in at least 10 Boston playgrounds contain arsenic in dangerously high levels found cause for concern. Dorchester's Ronan Park, a popular playground in Meetinghouse Hill, was diagnosed as among the most toxic, with levels of arsenic more than three times above what state environmental officials deem acceptable.

Arsenic, a highly toxic metallic element used in rat poison, seeps into the soil from pressure-treated wood. The UMass study found that, of the 76 city-operated playgrounds it surveyed, 25 held playground equipment or infrastructure made of pressure-treated wood; 18 of those contained arsenic.

City officials insisted the findings did not represent a public safety concern, but said they would contract experts to investigate further and make recommendations about whether or not the equipment and soil should be removed.

"I think it's being taken out of context," said Antonia Pollak, Boston's acting commissioner of parks and recreation. "Clearly, if we thought there was a public safety issue, we would be down there cordoning off the playgrounds."

Pollak said the Boston Public Health Commission had advised her department that the arsenic posed no immediate health risks. But Pollak said the report prompted her to hire an expert who would investigate, then advise the parks department within the next few weeks. She said a likely solution would be to paint over the wood, which she said would help seal the toxins.

Larysa Kulynych, co-chair of the Friends of Ronan Park, said many Meetinghouse Hill residents were unaware of the study, but those who were found it alarming.

"We're not happy that it's high anywhere, but especially with us," Kulynych said. "I think the responsibility problem does rest with the parks department. I think when (there is) a study like this, that we're at three times the normal level, that is cause for concern."

Leah Ross, the primary researcher behind the study, said media reports had fumbled the issue, but added that the numbers still indicated worrisome levels of hazardous chemicals.

"If I had a child, I'd still go there, I'd just be a little bit more aware," Ross said, adding that the type of pressure-treated wood, chromated copper arsenate (CCA), that spurs the problems will no longer be used in public or residential areas by the end of the year, except for marine purposes.

A parks department release on Friday questioned Ross's "broad margin of error," but Ross thought the error lay in the city's failure to curb the problem.

"My question is: Why did they have that [amount of arsenic-producing equipment] in the first place?" Ross said.

Davida Andelman, a local community activist and health official, said the equipment and soil should be pulled off the playgrounds with no delay.

"It's fine to say mothers and parents and grandparents and guardians ought to make sure that kids keep their hands clean and their mouths off of this thing or that thing," Andelman said. "But that's not the reality. The reality is that these things need to be removed."

City Hall circulated a letter signed by Ross and her two advising professors on the project warned that the study should not be used to "rank playground contamination," but that such a ranking is necessary. The letter also stated that Boston "is not unique" in its use of CCA wood, and that they "did not make any claims about the hazards of the arsenic levels we found."

According to Kulynych, the Friends of Ronan Park met with Pollak Wednesday night, and voiced their concerns.

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