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Soft-rot testing. Memo to CEN
1983 - IRG/WP 2206 A
1. Development of a single test procedure to assess performance of preservatives against soft rot fungi is an ideal that cannot be realised at present, if results are to be both reproducible between laboratories and pertinent to the practical requirements of individual countries. 2. Consensus opinion amongst members of Sub Group I - Soft rot tests, of Working Group II - Fundamentals of Testing, of the IRG, is that the immediate needs of CEN would be best answered by: (a) a code of recommended practice, (b) a multiplicity of test procedures, and (c) a degree of flexibility in test procedures. 3. The code of recommended practice should recognise the need for: (a) a pure culture, synthetic medium (sand or vermiculite + nutrients), single wood species test to be adopted by all laboratories as a common reference point of testing, (b) mixed inoculum and/or unsterile soil laboratory or fungus cellar tests which account for local variations in the fungal flora, (c) incorporation of a range of wood species where applicable (i.e. where mixed hardwoods comprise the main resource), (d) provision of local internal standards of known performance under field conditions, (e) incorporation of leaching procedures other than standard methods with deionized water (e.g. mild acid, milk alkali, ionic solutions of various salts) where applicable to local exposure conditions, (f) precise definition of the criteria used for establishing toxic thresholds (mass loss, strength loss, microscopic examination). 4. Initial screening tests should remain the province of the individual research worker. 5. The code of recommended practice should have the sole purpose of establishing provisional retention levels for subsequent confirmation by field trial. 6. IRG should list and approve test procedures considered adequate to establish toxic thresholds for preservatives against soft rot fungi. 7. It should be clearly understood that when using a series of test techniques, it is inevitable that a range of toxic thresholds will be obtained for the same preservative. 8. Guidelines should be drawn up for interpretation of test data for subsequent transformation to provisional retention levels. 9. Adoption of the broad principles outlines above is recognition of the dynamic nature of toxic thresholds. The additional information obtained by a more flexible, and complex, approach to testing may make interpretation more difficult but should provide data from which response of preservatives to varying biological and environmental hazards can be more realistically assessed. 10. It is recommended that CEN adopt, in principle, the basic philosophy of testing outlined above and move towards formulation of a Working Document in collaboration with IRG
J A Butcher, D J Dickinson


The use of organic wood preservatives in ground contact and the suitability of laboratory test procedures to determine their efficacy
1999 - IRG/WP 99-20175
Organic fungicides, such as propiconazole, have proven to be highly effective when used as a co-biocide in recently developed wood preservative formulations. They have however been ineffective when used as a stand alone preservative, particularly when used in ground contact (European Hazard class 4). Previous research, using the test methods of ENV 807 (1993), provided conflicting evidence regardi...
I J Herring, D J Dickinson


The extraction of boron from treated wood for quantitative analysis: A comparison of procedures
1992 - IRG/WP 92-2414
The extraction of boron preservative from treated rubberwood and scots pine samples was compared using methods based on refluxing and extraction in 1N NaOH or distilled water at 80°C. The extract solutions were analysed by Inductively Coupled Plasma spectroscopy (ICP/AES). A simple extraction procedure based on immersion of wood samples of approximate dimension 2 x 1 x 1 cm³ in distilled water a...
R J Murphy, D J Dickinson, P W McCormack, M K Lung


Sub-group on Basidiomycete tests: Experimental programme and schedule of participants
1980 - IRG/WP 2145
The objectives of this IRG COLLABORATIVE BASIDIOMYCETE TEST are to compare results and assess reproducibility of a miniaturised wood block toxicity test when undertaken by different workers in different laboratories. The co-operative scientists and institutes are: Dr K Messner from Vienna (Austria); Dr R S Smith from Forintek (Canada); Mr J Hansen from Sadolins (Denmark); Mr B Jensen from Gori (De...
A F Bravery


Wood Decay Research Using Molecular Procedures, What Can It Tell Us?
2008 - IRG/WP 08-10678
There are many unanswered questions in wood decay and protection research, and no single research technique will ever answer all of these questions. The process of wood decay is a very complex series of biochemical and chemical reactions that are heavily influenced by the hundreds of bacterial and fungal species found on environmental samples of wood. There are a variety of molecular techniques b...
S V Diehl, M. L Prewitt, Young-Min Kang, L Mangum, J D Tang


Third Party Quality Control and Laboratory Procedures in the United States
2010 - IRG/WP 10-20430
With over 5 billion treated board feet produced in the United States each year, there is a need for an established set of Quality Control and Laboratory procedures for independent agencies. These QC procedures ensure retailer and consumers that treated wood products have met conformance standards. These procedures provide treating facilities with guidelines on the production and service of treated...
C Barber, T Greer


The Impact of Cryopreservation Techniques and of Water Quality on the Wood Degrading Ability of Fungal Strains: Recommendations for Maintenance and Culturing Procedures
2018 - IRG/WP 18-20636
In order to establish an optimal cryopreservation method, strains of Basidiomycete and Ascomycete fungi, which are among the most frequently used for wood durability testing, were evaluated using three cryopreservation procedures at -80°C. The main objective was to prevent decrease of the fungal virulence that may occur due to repeated routine sub-culturing procedures and to optimize the reactiva...
A Stum, M Montibus, I le Bayon, M Kutnik


Development of procedures for sampling, testing, and classification to determine the biological durability of wood and wood products
2020 - IRG/WP 20-20676
This paper informs about a research project, which deals with several shortcomings and a lack of clarity within EN 350:2016. The project started in January 2020, will run for 3 years, and is operated by the Institute of Wood Technology Dresden (IHD) and the University of Goettingen (UGOE). Determination and classification of durability of wood and wood products against wood-destroying organisms ...
W Scheiding, K Jacobs, S Bollmus, C Brischke


Sterilization of Large Timbers during Preservative Treatment: How Quickly We Forget
2020 - IRG/WP 20-40902
Air seasoning is a common method of moisture management in utility poles and is done de facto during pole storage prior to treatment. However, extended air drying prior to treatment encourages fungal attack and can facilitate establishment of decay fungi in poles before a protective preservative barrier is applied. This problem can be mitigated by proper air-seasoning methods coupled with heat ste...
G Presley, J Cappellazzi, M Konkler, K Maguire, R Nelson, J J Morrell


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