In April, 2003, OECD published an ESD on wood preservatives that provides guidance on how to estimate emissions: 1) during the wood preservative application processes and storage of treated wood prior to shipment; and 2) from treated wood-in-service. The ad hoc Expert Group that developed the wood preservatives ESD identified the need to develop Test Guidelines to estimate the amount of biocides leaching from treated wood. A proposal to develop these Test Guidelines was submitted to the OECD Working Group of National Coordinators of the Test Guidelines Programme (WNT), and the WNT agreed at it May 2001 meeting to include this project in the Work Plan and Schedule of Activities. The current work on these Test Guidelines is being carried out b the Secretariat in collaboration with drafting group WG 27 of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). A first draft of the guidelines (for leaching of active ingredients from wood both in and not in contact with water/soil) was circulated in February 2003 to the National Coordinators for comment. Germany, with funding from the European Commission (EC), had agreed to carry out some pre-validation work that could address some of the issues raised in the comments from the National Coordinators. Germany invited project partners, the OECD Expert Panel, members of CEN TC38/WG 27, industry and governmental agencies to participate in a meeting held in September, 2004 to design the pre-validation work. Once the pre-validation work has been completed and the text for the draft guidelines modified, the guidelines will be submitted to experts in OECD countries for comment. The final drafts of the guidelines will be submitted to the Joint Meeting for declassification.

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