: Many old poles were treated with pentachloraphenol- a very dangerous chemical
: that has been banned for some time. The wood dust is toxic and using the
: poles for firewood is not allowed.

Thank you to everyone offering caution advice. I had not even thought of those possibilities. I contacted my friend and he assured me that they are chemical free. since they accuired such a large amount of poles they had them tested. they spent over $10,000 milling them because they had to be inspected individually with a metal detector before the milling company would cut them.
they also had them checked for chemicals because the owner of the company used a lot of the wood to build his cottage..

Thanks everyone for your replies

David