At one time tires found piled up in the woods were considered a hazardous waste and the soil under the pile was tested, removed, and placed in a hazardous waste dump. Then someone found a way to shred those same tires and something magical hand the tires were no longer a hazardous waste and could be used for making soaker hoses, as mulches, and covering children's playgrounds.

Some time back there was some concern about Arsenic in rubber water hoses, I have seen nothing about that in several years, however. I looked into using those soaker hoses in my gardens several years ago and decided against them because of too many unanswered questions about them.

Thanks so much, kimmq. That's exactly the kind of information I was looking for. A Google search found many well-known organic gardening sites saying soaker hoses are a great idea and we should all be using them. Then there's the relatively new polyurethane soaker hose which Water Right claims to be absolutely safe. I'm taking mine up, at least in the vegetable garden. Would you tell me how you water deeply without them?

Of all the issues one must concern themselves with regarding growing organically, soaker hoses and their potential toxicity are pretty far down on the "need to be concerned about" scale. I wouldn't recommend drinking from them but I wouldn't hesitate for an instant using them in the garden as they are intended. They are not leaching anything that doesn't already exist in the soil and what they DO leach is in such an infinitesimally low concentration and disbursed so thoroughly throughout the soil profile so as to have any negligible impact on the plants growing there. Very few of the elements they might leach are taken up by the plants anyway.

IMO, this is a complete non-issue. However if you are really against using rubber soakers - and soaker hoses are perhaps the most efficient way to water plants - then look for canvas soaker hoses.

Thanks, gardengal48. I hadn't heard of the canvas ones and I will definitely look into them.

Shouldn't it be as simple as 'If you are worried about it, don't do it.'?