The purpose of this work was to study the rate of losses of creosote from power transmission poles and its consequences on the expected life of the poles stored for a long period in horizontal position. Apart from this main target of the study, the results could allow a rough estimate of the load of creosote substances on the soil especially when the poles are stored and this load accumulates over the years and can have a serious impact on the environmental equilibrium in the storage places. The storage period in the present study was seven years and the poles were from wood of Pinus sylvestris. Three different categories of poles were included, i.e. 11 m light, 11 m medium and 10 m light. It was found that, on average, the loss of creosote is 6,8% annually depending on the type of the pole. The change in the retention of creosote can be expressed satisfactorily from the equation Y=Yo * e-b.t, where Yo is the initial retention of creosote, Y is the expected retention after t years, t is the time of storage in years and b is a constant. The long-term storage of poles causes a disproportionate high reduction of the average life after installation which starts from ca. 15% the first year and can reach a reduction of 60% after 20 years. The creosote losses (through volatization or draining), for the first year of storage were in the order of 5.0-12 kg of creosote per cubic meter of poles. Therefore, in large storage yards the quantity of creosote drained into the soil could be high with a serious impact on the environment.

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