The paper focuses on the role of different parameters, such as fixation, sample size, wood species, and leaching in internationally standardized ageing procedures for wood preservatives from Europe, Japan and the United States. The leaching protocols used were EN 84, JIS K 1571 and AWPA E11 protocols. The wood species were Scots pine, Sugi and Southern Yellow Pine respectively. Three types of commercially important copper-based wood preservatives were used as model formulations, namely copper/copper-HDO, ammoniacal copper/quat and CCA. The most important factors determining the extent of copper leaching in the different lab trials were the sample size (volume/surface ratio) and the fixation conditions prior to leaching. On the other hand, the wood species and the leaching protocol itself were found to have only minor influence on the copper leaching rate in the test methods included in this study.

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