The authorization of wood preservative formulations in the European Union according to the Biocidal Products Directive (BPD) includes the assessment of environmental risks by the emission of active ingredients. This risk assessment includes scenarios for preserved wood (e.g. house scenario, noise barrier), in which the predicted environmental concentration (PEC) for soil and water is calculated, using an emission or leaching rate for the active substances from the treated wood. The leaching rate is the most important starting parameter to determine the PEC value for different scenarios in the soil and water compartment. In this paper we compare leaching rates derived from well accepted laboratory and field studies for copper and boron from pressure treated wood. This comparison demonstrates that the recommended laboratory studies do not require additional correction factors for simulation of realistic worst case emissions from treated wood. In contrast, for the active substances reviewed, the laboratory tests overestimated leaching rates both for short and long-term exposure times as compared to the leaching rates obtained in field studies.

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