04/2007 01 November
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Member News

Ron Cockcroft Award 2008
Please note that applications for the Ron Cockcroft Award to attend the IRG 39 meeting next year in Istanbul must be submitted to the IRG Secretariat by 15 December 2007.
Read Conditions for the Ron Cockcroft Award

IRG Travel Award for Short-term Scientific Missions
Funds are still available for Travel Awards. If you are interested, please take advantage of the on-line application procedure available on the IRG website. The maximum amount that can be granted is Swedish Kroner SEK 12 500, i.e. approximately USD 1900 or EUR 1300.

Regulatory News

Australia: AQIS requirements under revision
The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) is currently reviewing its requirements with respect to timber permanent preservatives as quarantine treatments.
Please find here a copy of the AQIS Industry Notice 11/2007-08, issued 30 October 2007 on proposed changes to AQIS requirements for permanent preservative treatments for timber.
The Industry Notice will also be published in the next scheduled update of the Cargo Containers – Quarantine Aspects and Procedures" document, available from 1 November 2007 on the AQIS website.

Europe: Possible non-inclusion of Creosote under Annex I of the BPD
KEMI, the Swedish Chemicals Inspectorate, is carrying out the evaluation of the dossier 'Creosote' under the Biocidal Products Directive. KEMI will most probably argue for a non-inclusion of Creosote on Annex I of the Biocidal Products Directive. This would mean that Creosote would no longer be allowed to be used on the European market.
KEMI has very recently started an impact analysis on national Swedish level to study what consequences this would have. In the letter that KEMI has sent to Creosote Council Europe, the consortium that defends Creosote under the BPD it sets out the argumentation why not to include Creosote in Annex I.
    "The main results are that no safe use can be identified with respect to human health. In the risk characterisation section (DOC II, human health) of the CAR, all Margin of exposures (MOEs) indicate clear reason for concern.
    Creosote is classified as R45, Canc. Kat 2. Exposure to such substances should be negligible.
    In the TNsG on Annex I Inclusion it is stated that: "The risk from active substances that meet criteria for categories 1 or 2 carcinogenicity under 67/548/EEC will not be acceptable where exposure is likely to occur".
KEMI will finalise its report before the end of October. WEI will, together the Swedish Wood Preserving Association and Creosote Council Europe, discuss this matter as soon as possible.
Source: WEI Doc. 3257; 09 October 2007.

Europe: Chromium: Active substance or fixative?
According to the latest proposal from the EU Commission, Chromium-containing wood preservatives meeting the following requirements on their composition and use should be allowed to remain on the market:

1. Requirements regarding the composition of the products:
  • No other form than chromic acid (chromium trioxide) should be allowed in the product. Other chromium compounds, such as potassium dichromate or sodium dichromate should not be allowed, as no data have been provided to demonstrate that these compounds have no, or only a negligible, biocidal activity.
  • In salts containing chromate, the active substance must be a copper compound, such as copper (II) oxide or copper hydroxide. Other copper compounds such as copper sulphate or copper hydroxide carbonate shall not be allowed.
  • Boric acid may be added to the chromium/copper salts described above to increase the biocidal activity of the product against certain target organisms.
  • Water serves as the solvent for these components. The mass ratio of chromium trioxide to copper (II) oxide must not exceed a ratio of 3 to 1 in salts containing chromate. In those circumstances, it has been demonstrated that the biocidal activity of the chromium compound on the respective target organisms is negligible.

2. Requirements regarding the use of the products:
  • Not for use class 1 and 2.
  • Not for use in or around food-producing areas.
  • To be applied only via vacuum pressure impregnation.
  • Treated wood to undergo appropriate procedures, such as heat treatments, in order to allow fixation and full reduction of Cr (VI).
The maximum amount of CrO3 containing wood preservatives to be used per cubic meter of wood shall be defined and limited at product authorisation in order to restrict the amount of Chromium (VI) applied.
This final proposal now lies on the table and the EU Member States are requested to comment this before 12 October in order to be able to take a final decision at the next meeting of the Competent Authorities.
Please read the full document
Source: WEI Doc. 3256; 18 Sept 2007.

Europe: Construction Products Directive 89/106/EC - Proposed revision
Adopted in 1989, the European Construction Products Directive is not yet fully operational for all product groups and certain (practical) issues still need to be solved.
Regardless of this, the Construction services of the European Commission have been working for several months already on a proposal for a revision of Directive. This task has been assigned in particular to Mr Vicente Leoz-Arguëlles, former Head of the Construction unit and previously also responsible for the wood industries.
In June, the Commission services tabled two documents related to the revision of the Directive:
  • A ‘Draft proposal of the European Parliament and of the Council setting up the common language for expressing the performances and characteristics of construction products when placing them on the market’;
  • A ‘Proposal for the revision of the conformity procedures of construction products against the technical specifications’.
 Source: WEI News Issue 4/07 - July/August 2007.

Copies of these documents and more information on the revision are available from the WEI secretariat.

Business News

Europe: Wood-based panels growth expected
EUWID has reported that about 65 production lines for wood-based panels would be coming on line between 2007 and 2008, with Europe receiving the bulk of the projects. By the end of 2007, 36 new production lines would be online around the world, with 13 in Europe. Europe will receive 26 of the 66 product lines commissioned globally by the end of 2008. More than have of the firm orders placed with European plant builders are for MDF/HDF facilities.

Source: ITTO TTM Report
From Friday Offcuts – 24 August 2007.

Australasia: Major expansion of Arch Chemicals in Australasian wood protection markets
Arch Chemicals announced on July 5 that it had purchased 100 % of Koppers Arch by acquiring the 51 % shareholding owned by Koppers Inc. Koppers Arch had been a joint venture between the two companies for the past 18 years. The deal means that Koppers Arch will now come under full ownership and control of Arch Chemicals, and the company name will change name to Arch Wood Protection (Aust) Pty Ltd.
Read more

Australia: Preventing termite stowaways
Cargo containers have revolutionised the global market, making the supply of goods around the world not only possible, but affordable.
Read more
From Friday Offcuts – 17 August 2007.

Situations Vacant:

Arch Timber Protection: Development Chemist or Wood Scientist
Arch Timber Protection based in the UK at Castleford, West Yorkshire, has a job vacancy for Head of Development, they require a development chemist or wood scientist.
Please see attached the job advertisement

Interested applicants please contact mail@mccourtnewton.co.uk.

Position in "Wood durability" available at SP Trätek in Stockholm
A position with focus on wood durability and service life of wood constructions is available at SP Trãtek in Stockholm, Sweden.
The area of work will include research and project management in collaboration with industry, universities and research institutes.
Candidate should have a PhD or engineering degree and preferably be experienced in research in related areas. Experience from industry is also a merit. Many projects and other activities are conducted in collaboration with industrial and international partners. An open mind and a feeling for both service and business are therefore necessary. Good knowledge of English is a requirement.
Please forward your application by 16 November 2007 to: SP, Personalavdelningen, Box 857, SE-501 15 Borås, Sweden, or by email to jobb@sp.se. State Referens No. 2007:25.

More information can be obtained from: Dr Charlotte Bengtsson, Tel +46 10 516 54 91.

Scientific News

People in the News

In Memoriam - José Antonio Rodriguez Barreal
IRG expresses condolences to the family and friends of Professor Dr. Ing de Montes José Antonio Rodriguez Barreal, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain, who passed away on August 23.
He worked as Professor of Wood Pathology and joined the IRG 1987. Since then he attended a number of IRG Annual meetings. He has written several books about Wood Pathology, as well as many scientifical publications in this field.

IRG Secretariat News

IRG 38 at the Jackson Lake Lodge, US
A photo album from the conference, thanks to input from John Schert (our excellent IRG38 Photographer), Gerald Ozanne, Andrzej Kundzewicz, Anders Westh Kjellow, Judy Creffield, Dan Brimhall, and others who we may have forgotten but truly appreciate their input. The photo album can be accessed directly by clicking on this link, or copying and pasting in your browser's address window.
The link through the IRG Organization website is currently not directed to this webpage.
Should any of you wish to get a copy of the originals of any of these photos please contact Alan Preston. Original file sizes ranged up to 4.5MB.

Compendium updated
The web-based Compendium has now been updated with the 2007 papers. The papers are searchable already.

Ideas for IRG 39 Annual Meeting in Turkey
  • Special session on Termites and wood composites
Berhan Ahmed reminds members about contributions to a special session on Termites and wood composites to take place in Istanbul next year. Please contact Berhan for more information.
  • Special session on Conservation of wooden cultural heritage
Another topic proposed for a special session is Conservation of wooden cultural heritage. Contact person for this session is Wibke Unger. You may contact her for further information.
Other proposals for special sessions in Istanbul:
  • Decay mechanisms
  • Natural extractives (common interest in Sections 1 and 3; focus should be on the mode of action of these, their ecotoxicity, and the interest in industry for this type of chemicals)
  • Nanomaterials and nanotechnology in wood protection
  • Wood protection in Eastern Europe.
It was also suggested that
  • The characterisation of moisture in wood in service and its consequences could be a topic of common interest for Sections 2 and 5.
  • The special focuses of Section 2 for next year would be on performance classification, the initiative for a DNA sequencing priority list of organisms, and corrosion.
  • Aesthetics and Coatings could be introduced as a regular working party on coatings.
More ideas are welcome. Please contact the Scientific Programme Committee chairman, Mr Jack Norton, or any of the Section leaders: Dr Frederick Green III, Dr Michael Kennedy, Dr Marko Petrič, Dr Andreas Rapp, or Dr Ed Baines.

Problems with the Compendium login ID?
Some members have reported problems with the Compendium login.
The following procedure seems to work in most cases:
First you need to clear your Internet cache. If you are using Internet Explorer, click on the Tools menu and then Internet Options. Find and select Clear temporary internet files.
In Mozilla Firefox, you choose Tools and then Clear sensitive data. Check Cache and Session data and hit clear.
NB. In order to get renewed login ID, the 2007 dues must be paid.

IRG Regional Meeting in collaboration with IUFRO
The IUFRO All Division 5 Conference takes place in Taipei, Taiwan on 29 October -2 November 2007.
The wood protection sessions of the IUFRO conference will be jointly organized with the IRG. and a session keynote/position paper will be presented by the IRG President, Dr Gérard Deroubaix.
Approximately 25 papers on wood protection will be presented at the conference. These will be made available for IRG members through the web-based Compendium later this year.

5th Conference of the Pacific Rim Termite Research Group
The 5th Conference of the Pacific Rim Termite Research Group (TRG) will be held in Bali, Indonesia on 3-4 March 2008. Further information will be provided through a contact with Kunio Tsunoda.

Sponsor the IRG e-Newsletter in 2008
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, Dyrup (DK), Sankyo Agro, and Viance.
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 keep our register up to date and 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.

Sponsor

Sponsor of this issue:


Click the logo to visit the e-Newsletter sponsor!

Updated: Events

IUFRO All Division 5 Conference
(29 Oct - 02 Nov 2007, Taipei, Taiwan)
COST Action E37 11th Workshop
(04 - 06 Nov 2007, Florence, Italy)
Durability of wood-framed housing - Lessons Learned from Natural Disasters
(13 - 15 Nov 2007, Biloxi, Mississippi, USA)
13th International Timber conference
(5 - 7 Dec 2007, Garmisch, Germany)
MEDACHS 08 1st Int Conference on "Construction Heritage in Coastal and Marine Environments
(28 - 30 Jan 2008, Lisbon, Portugal)
Nordic Wood Biorefinery Conference
(11 - 14 March 2008, Stockholm, Sweden)
11th International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components - “Globality” and “Locality” in Durability
(11 - 14 May 2008, Istanbul, Turkey)

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The IRG Procedures Manual ia a "handbook" for IRG Members and Sponsors. It has the following contents:

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