>I live in a wet climate, and yes I am aware of using various paraffin
>dips, but I am curious about use of the new chemistry treated wood
>off-the-shelf.

Copper is one of the many trace elements that is essential to health.

Stern Bonnie R (2010). "Essentiality and Toxicity In Copper Health Risk Assessment: 
Overview, Update And Regulatory Considerations". Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. Part A 73: 114–127.

However, like most things it is also toxic at excessive doses.  As a chemist my opinion is that using a commercially produced pressure treated wood containing copper in painted bottom boards is probably safe.  But that opinion assumes the copper is fixed in a non mobile form in the wood and also that the paint will seal the traces of copper that are inevitably going to be released from the wood.  Any treated product rated for soil contact is going to have to have the copper fairly well fixed in the wood or it would rapidly leach and provide no protection.  The only real way to be sure any product is safe would be to do some field testing on actual hives and no wood supplier is likely to ever do such testing.

Dick

 
" Any discovery made by the human mind can be explained in its essentials to the curious learner."  Professor Benjamin Schumacher talking about teaching quantum mechanics to non scientists.   "For every complex problem there is a solution which is simple, neat and wrong."  H. L. Mencken


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