IRG Newsletter 0107

01/2007 25 February

Member News

Regulatory News

Europe: Reach finally adopted
After marathon talks, the EU's three lawmaking bodies - Parliament, Council and Commission - came to a compromise agreement on the draft REACH regulation on 30 November 2006. The proposal, called REACH - Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of CHemicals - will ensure that importers and producers of chemicals provide at least basic health and safety testing for their products. It will replace some 40 legislative texts with a single regulation. A compromise deal on the proposed REACH regulation was adopted by Parliament on 13 December with 529 votes in favour, 98 against and 24 abstentions. The new rules, which will come into effect from June 2007, will require importers and manufacturers of chemicals to provide health and safety data for some 30,000 substances currently used in everyday products. These range from plastics used in computers and mobile phones to substances used in textiles, paints, furniture, toys and cleaning products. All must be registered over an 11-year period within a new chemicals agency to be set up in Helsinki. The registration process will begin with the most toxic chemicals as well as those marketed in higher volumes. The final text of the Regulation will be available shortly.
Meanwhile, a Q&A can be found here
Source: WEI Doc. 3225; Brussels, 22 December 2006.

Business News

Europe: Wood for energy is a waste says European paper industry
The European paper industry has published an independent study showing that using wood as a resource for paper products first, and only using it as a source of energy at the end of the product life cycle adds four times more added value to the economy and retains six times more jobs than simply burning wood for energy.
Read more
From Friday Offcuts – 16 February 2007.

New Zealand: TimTech Chemicals initiates legal action against cartel
On Thursday 15 February 2007, TimTech Chemicals Limited has filed civil proceedings in the Auckland High Court against two New Zealand companies, their Australian parent companies and fifteen executives for significant damages arising from anticompetitive cartel action and exclusionary conduct to which these companies recently pleaded guilty. (See also NiB 02/2005 11 May).
Read more
Source: TimTech Chemicals Ltd Auckland, New Zealand, February 2007.

New Zealand: Cartel fined $5.5M - Victims get nothing
On Friday 06 October 2006, the Commerce Commission in Auckland, New Zealand announced that Osmose New Zealand, Osmose Australia and two Australian-based executives pleaded guilty to bid rigging, price fixing and attempting to eliminate a new competitor, TimTech Chemicals Ltd, from the wood preservative chemicals market.
The Osmose companies were fined $1.075m for price-fixing conduct, $725,000 for the attempted exclusion of TimTech and costs of $100,000. (See also NiB 02/2005 11 May).
Read more
Source: TimTech Chemicals Ltd Auckland, New Zealand, October 2006.

France: Vacancy Announcement - Wood Biology and Wood Preservation Research Scientist
Within the Timber Construction Industries Division, in relation with the Biology laboratory (entomology, mycology, ecotoxicology) and in collaboration with the other services of CTBA, you will work at a national and international level, in relation with the wood and preservation professional and industrial sectors, as well as the research centres and universities.
Read the vacancy announcement
For this Rolling contract located in Bordeaux, thank you to sent your CV and your application letter under the reference 2006IBC25 to:
CTBA - Service Ressources Humaines -
Allée de Boutaut - BP 227
FR - 33028 Bordeaux Cedex - France
Valerie Gaste

Asia: Timber treatment trends
ACQ-treated wood is likely to dominate the market in Korea. With the use of Chromated Copper Arsenate (CCA) treated wood likely to be restricted in Korea in the near future, the local timber industry sees ACQ-treated wood replacing 70 to 80 percent of the existing market for CCA-treated wood in the future.
Read more
From Friday Offcuts – 19 January 2007.

New Zealand and Australia: Colour and temperature treatment for wood unveiled
Mahild Drying Technologies GmbH, Nürtingen, Germany, has developed a new technology and a new range of special drying chambers for temperature treatment of wood.
Temperature treated and Steam treated lumber are rapidly growing markets. Mahild has developed treatment chambers type MH2000 TW for large-scale industrial applications. Volumes up to 100 m3 are available. MAHILD chambers are designed for up to 240° C. MAHILD use heating medium of Thermal oil or Steam. Specially designed MM4000 precision control software is available to control and document the treatment process.
Read more
From Friday Offcuts – 12 January 2007.

Japan revises regulation for wood packaging
Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) has adopted new measures for quarantine inspections of wood packaging materials.
Read more
From Friday Offcuts – 12 January 2007.

Scientific News

New Zealand: Impact of moisture meter readings with treated timber
BRANZ Ltd examined the results given by three conductivity-based moisture meters for moisture content of treated and untreated Radiata pine, after the timber had been conditioned at 65%, 75% or 98% relative humidity, using a standard oven-dry method for calibration of the actual timber moisture contents.
The treatments included boron, LOSP, CCA and ACQ. The manufacturer-supplied correction tables worked well for untreated timber, but the presence of treatment lowered the accuracy of all of the meters in a way dependent on the timber preservative type and the mode of meter operation. The work suggested that there is no possibility of issuing a single set of correction tables which will work with every brand of commercial moisture meter.
The full report is attached here as a PDF for your information.
From Friday Offcuts – 09 February 2007.

Hungary: Cooperation in soil remediation technology
A Hungarian SME offers a combined, biological and chemical remediation technology for companies interested in remediation technologies. The offered technology can be used in an in situ elimination of damages occurred in soils and ground waters. It is suitable for an effective, environment friendly elimination of damages caused by benzene, toluene, ethyl-benzene and xylol (BTEX)and methyl-tertiary-butylether (MTBE)contaminations, as well as by heavy or dead oil. They seek a cooperation partner to sign a technical, manufacturing or commercial agreement.
Read more
From CORDIS focus – N° 60 January 2007.

People in the News

IRG Secretariat News

IRG 38 at the Jackson Lake Lodge, US

Deadline for submission of full papersand poster abstracts
Please note that the deadline for contributions of full papers and poster abstracts is 15 March 2007 and for registration 30 April 2007.

REMINDER! Nominations for the Executive Council and Scientific Programme Committee
This is a reminder to Members to nominate candidates to the Executive Council in 2007.
Two new members and a new Vice-President will be elected, one representing the Members and one representing the Group's sponsors. The latter must be a personal member of the IRG.
The detailed procedure is described in the Nomination Procedure for Officers and nominations must be made on the appropriate form to the Chairman of the Nominations Sub-Committee via the IRG Secretariat.
Only valid nominations received by 31 March 2007 will be considered.
New teams for Section 4 (Processes and properties) and Section 5 (Environmental aspects) will also be appointed at the IRG 38 Annual Meeting. Candidates for Vice Chairs for Section 4 and Section 5 may also be proposed. This can be done by e-mail to the IRG Secretariat by 31 March 2007.
If any member is interested in serving on the Electronic Communications Committee (ECC), please contact the IRG Secretariat. The purpose of the ECC is to give advice and guidance concerning electronic matters and in particular electronic communication to the Executive Council and the IRG Secretariat.

Reminder: Membership and Sponsorship renewals
Invoices for 2007 have been mailed just before Christmas. Quite a number of members and sponsors has not yet paid up the 2007 dues. The easiest way to renew membership and sponsorship is to take advantage of the secure online renewal function on the IRG website.
Please pay your dues by 15 March 2007.
Please note that your online Compendium access will not be renewed until you have paid your dues!

Sponsor the IRG e-Newsletter in 2007
IRG regular sponsors and members' institutes are kindly invited to sponsor the production of the IRG e-Newsletter in order to cover the costs involved for production of the same.
The IRG e-Newsletter is scheduled for six issues per year, and for each issue a sponsor is welcome. The fee for sponsoring the e-Newsletter is USD 450 (SEK 3 000) in 2007. The e-Newsletter sponsor will then get the company/institute logo on the front page and a link to the company/institute website.
Sponsors so far have been: Arch (UK), Arch (US), CSI, Dr Wolman GmbH, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Lanxess, Nisus Corporation, Osmose (US), Troy Corporation, US Borax and Dyrup (DK).
Please contact the IRG Secretariat, if you are interested in sponsoring the e-Newsletter.

Contact details
Please report any change of contact details (address, e-mail, tel, fax) to the IRG Secretariat immediately in order to facilitate the Secretariat's communication with Members and Sponsors.

Legal Information
Read legal information here

Editorial
If you have information related to wood protection being of general interest for Regular Members, Student Members or IRG Sponsors, please email to the NiB editor with the name of the web page and the URL.