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The present status, characteristics and problems of wood based turning handicrafts industry in Bangladesh
2005 - IRG/WP 05-40298
Cottage industry is an important sector both socio-economically and environmentally, because such industries provide jobs and income, which restricts destruction of forest and increase of agri-land. Study on the present status, characteristics, and growth potential of wood based turning handicrafts industry in Bangladesh revealed that in Khulna District, there are 20 (twenty) numbers of turning wo...
A K M A Bosunia, M A Islam, M M Rahman, A K Lahiry


Management of the wood and additives wastes in the wood processing industries: Problematics and technical answers review
1996 - IRG/WP 96-50073
Management pathways for pure wood subproducts are well known and used; but as soon as additives like preservatives, glues, varnishes or coatings are present within the wood wastes, their disposal or valorization becomes more tricky. The different kinds of mixed wood wastes of the wood processing industries, from the sawmill to the furniture manufacture, are identified herewith and their diversity ...
S Mouras, G Labat, G Deroubaix


Wood preservation in Poland
2004 - IRG/WP 04-30362
Dynamic growth of market demand for wooden elements and articles, generated in Poland increase of interest in industrial preservation. Today, Poland is a substantial producer and exporter of wood made products. Majority of exported wood - approximately 70% - is scotch pine (Pinus silvestris L.), which, due to its natural durability, requires preservation....
A Kundzewicz


The applicability of life cyle analysis and alternative methods in the wood preservation industry
1994 - IRG/WP 94-50023
In the Netherlands, several case studies have been performed using the life cycle analysis method (LCA). This type of research is aimed at an inventory and classification (sometimes including also evaluation) of the environmental impacts of a product, from the raw material to waste stage ("cradle to grave" approach). In a LCA each environmental impact is assessed in terms of, for example, mass of ...
P Esser, J Cramer


IRG - wood preservation - annual report 1999; wood preservation in Slovak Republic
2000 - IRG/WP 00-40192
This report gives basic information about wood preservation in Slovak Republic, related to the wood preservation research and education, to the most important wood-destroying organisms, to the wood preserving industry, and also to the problems of standards, market and environment....
L Reinprecht


Japanese wood preserving industry
1990 - IRG/WP 3596
Although a great amount of wood is in use in Japan, a little attention has been paid to the significance and importance of wood preservation. The fact reflects that only less than 0.5% of the total wood consumption is treated with wood preservatives today in the country. Over the 20 years before 1970, the annual volume of preservative treated (pressure treatment) wood was relatively at a stable le...
K Tsunoda


Preliminary attempts towards the development of a small scale termite rearing chamber. Progress report
1983 - IRG/WP 1203
The results suggest that there is no evidence that the volume of the rearing chamber plays a part in the settlement of a colony. These rearing chambers present a factor of productivity (final enumeration)/(initial enumeration) of roughly 2 after one year. 90% of the colony survived. This method of breeding can be considered as feasible and cheap....
M Argoud, J C Palla, R Sternalsky


Environmental issues: Messages for the wood preservation industry
1985 - IRG/WP 3353
A review of the origins and structure of environmental legislation throughout those territories of the world where wood preservation is a major industry is given. The implications of media, industry and legislation interaction is discussed and suggestions made as to the key issues the wood preservation industry should concentrate its attentions on in the immediate future....
D G Anderson, P Waldie


Preliminary attempts towards the development of a small-scale termite rearing chamber
1982 - IRG/WP 1148
The paper suggests how to prepare a small-scale rearing chamber for termites which might be used for testing the effectiveness of possible termiticides. A technique for breeding the termites is suggested....
M Argoud, J Mocotte, R Sternalsky


Wood preservation in the Australian beekeeping industry
1988 - IRG/WP 3473
This paper reports the results of a survey of Australian commercial beekeepers working 200 or more hives in June/July 1985. Nine hundred and forty seven apiarists were asked to participate and to provide information on their wood preservation methods, painting procedures and maintenance of bee boxes. Three hundred and eighty-four apiarists returned completed questionnaires (41%). The main wood pre...
P J Robinson, J R J French


A study on biological properties of small black sawer beetle (Monochamus sotor L.)
1992 - IRG/WP 92-1525
The biological properties of the small black sawer beetle (SBSB), which is mainly destructive insect species for fire-damaged timbers in Da Xing An Ling region in China have been researched. Their main properties are: 1. The SBSB occures one generation one year in this region and their larvae overwinter in xylem. 2. The pupation starts in in late May and peak occures in early June. 3. The emergenc...
Lu Wenda, Shao Jing Wen, Li Jian, Men Fan rong


Soil contamination at the wood preservation industry: Treatment technologies
2001 - IRG/WP 01-50166-16
The soil is a specific compartment of the biosphere, because it is not only a geochemical sink for contaminants, but it also acts as a natural buffer, controlling the transport of chemical elements and substances to the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biota. Soil contamination problems are expected at wood preservation sites, particularly at those which use(d) inorganic wood preservatives or creosote...
A B Ribeiro, L M Ottosen


Trends in environmental management in industry. Implications for wood preservation activities
1993 - IRG/WP 93-50001-34
J A De Larderel


Some statistics on the Brazilian Wood Preservation Industry: 1980-81
1982 - IRG/WP 3214
Statistical data on the production of pressure treated wood and on the consumption of wood preservatives are given for the years of 1980 and 1981 in Brazil....
M S Cavalcante, F C Geraldo, A R De Freitas


Cleaner prodiction and the wood preserving industry
1995 - IRG/WP 95-50040-29
H Carr-Harris, C R Coggins


The Biocidal Products Directive ( 98/8/EC ) - its consequences for the wood preservation industry
2001 - IRG/WP 01-50166-04
1. The Current Position This European Union Directive is one of the most technically complex pieces of legislation that has been developed by the European Commission (EC). Although the Directive was to have been implemented in the legislation of individual Member States of the EU by May 2000 progress has been slow. A number of Member States have yet to declare the Competent Authority who will handle their legislation. The body text of the Directive cannot stand-alone and is dependent on ancillary regulations and the development of technical guidance for both the Competent Authorities in the Member States and also industry to understand their roles in the whole process for the regulation of biocides and the biocidal products containing them. The process is far from complete in terms of a piece of workable legislation and this leaves not only industry but also the Competent Authorities with significant areas of uncertainty. This is potentially economically and socially damaging to the marketing and use of biocides and biocidal products. Because of this evolutionary process this paper can only be written in general terms as by the time the symposium takes place some significant changes to the position at the time of writing may have occurred. 2. Background The Biocidal Products Directive (98/8/EC), (BPD), is a directive which requires that biocides ( as active substances) are approved for use within the EU and the individual biocidal products containing these active substances are approved for use by the Competent Authority(s) of the Member State(s) in which it is intended to market the product. The product authorisation obtained in the first Member State should be mutually recognised by the other Member States in which application for authorisation to place the product on the market is sought. The Directive has to be seen in the context various other Directives, notably the Plant Protection Directive 91/414/EC). Biocidal products are grouped in the directive into twenty three "product types" and wood preservatives are Product Type 8. The intention of the directive is to harmonise the requirements for the placing of biocidal products and active ingredients on the market throughout the EU. EU wide use of so-called Common Principles are intended to be used to assess the dossiers in order to achieve a common approach and eliminate the current situation where individual Member States apply their own particular national approaches and criteria in the assessment and regulation of products . Annex IIA of the directive identifies the data requirements for the active substance and Annex II B for the biocidal product. There are additional data requirements identified in Annexes IIIA and IIIB for each product type reflecting potential for exposure to man and the environment. 3. Entry onto Annex I Any new active substance will require approval before it or any biocidal products including it can be placed on the market. The dossier to be submitted to the EC will have to include additional data and risk assessments for the product types (as defined in the BPD) in which it will be intended to be used. For those active substances that are accepted as being existing substances on the market before May 2000 (say in wood preservatives) these will be ranked and prioritised. This process is being defined in the so-called: Review Regulations. 4. An environmental directive There is no doubt that this Directive has a high environmental content in terms of the data and the associated risk assessments which are to be prepared. The protocols and the end points for some of these data requirements are still being developed. In general the EC considers that modelling exposure using human and environmental exposure scenarios covering the end use of the product is an acceptable approach . Data are required to enable these scenarios to be modelled and risk assessments made. It is necessary that regulators do not make decisions based on hazard assessment alone in the absence of fully worked out and agreed emission scenarios to define exposure levels which generate a realistic worst case risk assessment. Risk is a function of both hazard and exposure. A lot of work has been done in the development of Technical Notes for Guidance intended to help the regulator and the applicant in the submission and the interpretation of the data. Whilst it may be the case that the human toxicity data requirements still leave questions to be answered it is in the environmental aspects part of the regulatory process where there is still much work to be done. The Directive would seem to rely heavily on the development of Pass / Fail criteria in simulation tests. This is a big subject and of key importance to the risk assessment. 5. Wood preservatives ---- a test case Wood preservation has achieved a certain reputation. On the one hand it is said that a prime reason for the development of the Biocidal Products Directive arose from European problems in the regulation of the marketing and use of dangerous substances, notably wood preservatives. On the other hand because wood preservatives have been regulated by a number of Member States for many years it is believed they are well understood. The EC and the Member States also wanted to be seen to have achieved early success in the implementation of the Directive therefore the decision was taken to start, following failings with the speed of progress of the Plant Protection Products Directive, with a product type they knew all about i.e. wood preservatives. There is no doubt that there is a much greater understanding on the exposure scenarios, both human and environmental, for wood preservatives than many other product types. However, would it not have been better to have tackled some of the other product types where such an understanding is much less well developed? It is regrettable that the EC and Member States did not feel able to accept the results of an EC sponsored study (Haskoning report) on the assessment of risks for all the product types covered under the BPD. The results of this study clearly showed that wood preservatives did not constitute the most significant risk to man or the environment and in fact the risk was significantly greater for other product types. 6. Wood preservatives and the OECD Biocides Programme Another speaker will be covering this subject in more detail. Suffice it to say that because of the perception there was good knowledge about wood preservatives again they were selected as the pilot for an OECD project looking at environmental and human exposure assessment under the OECD Biocides Programme. The findings from two OECD Workshops actually demonstrated there was still much to be learnt about wood preservatives in order to refine the risk assessments to a state where they would be sufficient for the requirements of the BPD. This work is ongoing but it clearly demonstrates the problems that both the regulator and industry will have in the preparation and the assessment of the dossiers for both the active substances and the biocidal products. This is especially the case for other biocidal products that have not been subject to the same kind of regulation that wood preservatives have subjected to in the past. 7. Inorganic and organic biocides With current wood preservation technology there is still a dependence on inorganic chemicals such as copper (in conjunction with other biocides) or with chromium, as well as arsenic and boron for many end use applications. This is very much the case where a long term service life is a key factor in the use of treated wood for that end use. These substances are commodity chemicals and are also covered under the Existing Substances Regulations (EC) 1488/94. There is also work going on revising the Technical Notes for Guidance covering them . This includes a significant addition in the environmental risk assessment area. Efforts are being made to integrate and coordinate the requirements for both the BPD and the Existing Substances Regulations and OSPAR ( OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic). OSPAR refers to the Oslo Paris Convention. Whilst the BPD seems primarily aimed at the regulation of biocides based on organic chemicals wood preservative products may contain both inorganic and organic components. Indeed there are probably few wood preservative formulations on the market that contain only one active substance. This must have a significant impact on the way the dossiers are prepared for the active substance and the biocidal products and how they are assessed both at the EC and the Member State level. 8. Consequences of the BPD for the wood preservation industry Whilst this paper addresses the consequences for the wood preservation industry per se, it must not be overlooked that there may be implications for the fabricaÈors of articles made from treated timber. Some current wood preservative formulations may over a period of time be withdrawn from the market because the risks and costs of generating the data and the preparation of the dossier make the product economically unviable. The presence of large working volumes of wood preservative solutions at treatment plants requires realistic withdrawal periods to avoid the unnecessary disposal and associated environmental risk of products that have been used satisfactorily for many years. 9. Availability of active substances The structure of the industry has changed dramatically in the past few months and there is no doubt that other changes both within and outside the wood preservation industry itself are yet to happen. The original differentiation between formulator of wood preservatives and active substance suppliers to the wood preservation industry has become blurred. Some of the active substances used in wood preservation are used in other either other biocidal product types or in products regulated under another directive, e.g. Plant Protection Products Directive 91/414/EC. 10. Data protection This continues to be a key issue for industry and some companies may find it strategically or financially necessary not to support an active substance in a particular product type thus leaving that sector without being able to use the active substance. The coming months will start to reveal which active substances are likely to be supported, at least through the notification process. Formulators are therefore in a close dialogue with their suppliers to try to determine their intentions on whether or not they intend to support their active substance. Today's wood preservative formulations are largely multi active substance based. Product costs, efficacy spectra, niche marketing and other considerations have made this process inevitable. New wood preservative formulations take time to research and develop and the continuity of availability of a choice of active substances is of key importance. A lack of adequate return on investment necessary to sustain the development of new products could have a negative impact on innovation and the rate of introduction of new products. It is extremely unlikely that any new active substance will be solely developed for use in wood preservation. This would be an effect contrary to expectations of the EC. The situation with wood preservatives is complicated by the fact that treated wood is a construction product and comes under the scope of the Construction Products Directive (89/106/EEC) (CPD). Products under the scope of the CPD are required to meet certain so-called essential requirements and one of these is durability. Demonstration of compliance involves the extensive suite of CEN wood preservative efficacy tests. Even relatively small changes in formulations may require extensive re-testing under the EN 599 regime in some Member States. 11. Task Forces Companies are encouraged by the EC to enter into Task Forces in order to reduce the burden of testing on animals and also to reduce the number of dossiers to be reviewed for each active substance. Ideally, and understandably, the EC would like one dossier per active substance. Parts of the wood preservation industry have been co-operating in Task Forces and much practical experience has been gained. Even closer co-operation will be required and this will enable companies to pool experience and expertise and manage their financial exposure to potentially high regulatory costs by sharing them amongst a larger number of parties. 12. Financial aspects Industry will have to make some best guesses with respect to its investment programmes for supporting its portfolio of products. Formulators and active substance suppliers are likely to group into Task Forces in order to reduce their costs in terms of data generation and the fees likely to be charged at the EU and the Member State level for the assessment of the dossiers. The compilation of the dossiers requires specialist expertise to assist the industrial applicant(s). This is likely to cost in the order of £100,000 per active substance, not including the costs of generating any data. The Rapporteur State's costs for reviewing the dossier is also expected to be of the same order. Clearly these kinds of costs will impact on innovation. An adequate payback must be available to the company to justify this level of investment. 13. Will mutual recognition work? Member States are required to recognise the authorisation of the biocidal product placed on the market in the first Member State when subsequent applications are made to place the product on the market. This is a fundamental principle of the BPD, although there is concern that Member States continue to have enough flexibility to prevent this happening if there are particular concerns in that Member State. Industry very much hopes this will not be the case and that mutual recognition, a fundamental principle of the BPD, will work in practice. 14. Environmental aspects Biocidal products such as wood preservatives are generally applied in controlled situations and not over large areas. Consequently any emissions can be considered to be from discreet sources, such as treated timber or potentially from timber treatment plants. This is in contrast to plant protection products and some other biocidal products that are usually dispersed over a relatively large area. Because of this a lot of work is required to be done to re evaluate how the environmental aspects of biocidal products such as wood preservatives can be assessed in an objective manner. The criteria that define an emission and how the PEC (Predicted Environmental Concentration) for each environmental compartment is determined are critical. The wood preservation industry, through the EWPM (European Wood Preservative Manufacturers Group), has been working with institutes and other interested parties in a co-operation known as the EFG (Environment Focus Group) to progress the development of appropriate methodology. Data will be required for both primary and secondary exposure to treated timber. The protocols for this work are yet to be agreed. This work is being further progressed in the OECD together with input from CEN TC 38 WG27. This co-operation between the OECD and CEN is extremely significant in that it is, I believe, the first time such a co-operation has taken place in the development of an OECD Guideline. If one considers all of the end uses where treated timber may be found carrying out a risk assessment with few guidelines on how it should be done is a very uncertain process for both industry and the regulator. Reliance on so-called expert opinion may be inadequate. 15. Comparative assessment (the substitution principle) This is a process whereby the health safety and environmental properties of acti_u101 ? substances used in the same product type could be compared and those with the most undesirable properties would not be placed on Annex I. Consequently biocidal products containing them would have to be removed from the market. This process is embodied in the BPD but it was initially considered that it would only be applied in the event of problems arising with active substances or products containing them rather than being used as a screening tool early on in the review process for active substances. This area is still an uncertain one with Member States having different interpretations of this principle. It is unfortunate that the wood preservation industry could be used to test out this concept at a European level. The consequences of this principle could be further losses of active substances available to the wood preservative formulators. 16. Substances of concern The BPD is not only concerned with the active substances that are formulated into the biocidal product but also with so-called "substances of concern". These are defined as any substance, other than the active substance, which has the inherent capacity to cause an adverse effect on humans, animals or the environment and is present or is produced in a biocidal product in sufficient concentration to create such an effect. There are significant implications for the formulator of the biocidal product . The formulator may have to submit an extensive dossier containing toxicological and metabolic as well as ecological data on each of the substances of concern when seeking approval for the biocidal product. There may be classes of compounds that become unavailable to the formulator either because of the risks posed by the co-formulant or because the cost of generating data will be uneconomic. 17. The wood preservation Industry's view on the BPD Industry has supported the development of the BPD since its conception in 1989. It is still supportive it but believes that the degree of complexity is disproportionate to the level of risk when it comes to wood preservatives. After all wood preservatives have been regulated for a long time and in reality there have been few significant health safety and environmental problems associated with them. Industry believes there is no need to determine an absolute understanding about a biocide and its application but rather there is a need to determine the level of understanding that will enable characterisation so that a risk assessment can be made. The wood preservation industry has sought either directly or through representative bodies a pro-active and collaborative approach with the regulators although at times this appears to have encouraged inappropriate demands. The regulators have invariably responded positively to this however they may not always understand the burden in both time and resource in having made wood preservatives the test case. Industry hopes that its efforts to be pro-active will be recognised and will be dealt with equitably when considered before the other product types defined in the Biocidal Products Directive.
D Aston


The role of third party independent inspection agency for wood preservation industry in China
2009 - IRG/WP 09-20425
This presentation attempts to provide a brief historical background and a current status report on the wood preservation industry in China. In addition, it will briefly introduce the need for building the quality control procedures and China wood protection Quality Supervision and Testing Center, a third-party inspection agency. Besides, some suggestions of this industry are proposed for its furth...
Zhenzhong Tang, Changsheng Shen, Yujie Han, Changming Song


Status of wood preservation in India
2005 - IRG/WP 05-30386
Wood, despite the advent of other modern materials, continues to play an important role in man’s day to day life. Usage of wood ranges from fuelwood to engineered wood products and demand for it is increasing which has resulted in depletion of forests and diminishing wood supplies. Future needs are required to be met from plantation timbers after adopting processing technologies for their life...
S C Gairola, P K Aggarwal


Decay types observed in small stakes of pine and Alstonia scholaris inserted in different types of unsterile soil
1990 - IRG/WP 1443
The attack of various wood-degrading microorganisms occurring in mini-stakes of pine and Alstonia scholaris buried in various types of unsterile soil was studied. Attacks by white rot, brown rot, soft rot, erosion bacteria, tunnelling bacteria and actinomycetes were found. Soft rot occurred in all soils, whereas attack by white rot and especially brown rot and erosion bacteria was rare. The type o...
T Nilsson, G F Daniel


Termite control in the post-organochlorine era: How do we advise industry and society?
1990 - IRG/WP 1435
Organochlorines have been severely restricted and banned in many States in North America, and replaced by organophosphates and synthetic pyrethroids. This situation may occur in Australia, and elsewhere, in the not too distant future. Just how do we as entomologists advise the industry and society in termite control in the post-organochlorine era? A brief historical overview of pesticide bans and ...
J R J French


Accreditation: mutual benefits for research and industry
2010 - IRG/WP 10-20452
The wood preservation laboratory of the CIRAD had its first ISO 17025 accreditation from the COFRAC in 2006 for 5 standardized test procedures. The so called “first cycle” of its accreditation will be mid-2010. This laboratory is now accredited for 8 tests and is planning to increase the field of its quality management and accreditation. This poster describes how research projects, pre-normati...
L Martin, N Leménager, C Baudassé, M-F Thévenon


Incising to improve penetration and retention of creosote in small-diameter Kenyan-grown Cypress (Cupressus lusitanica)
2003 - IRG/WP 03-40253
Turning small-diameter plantation thinnings into value-added products has remained a challenge in many countries, including Kenya. The present study reports on a feasible technique to effectively treat small-diameter cypress for use in ground contact. Samples of pole-size Cypress (Cupressus lusitanica), 106 mm and 138 mm in average diameter, were sampled from thinnings in 7 and 12 year-old plant...
R Venkatasamy


Wood Preservation India; Current Scenario
2013 - IRG/WP 13-40630
This short note describes the present status of wood preservation research and its industrial application. Although good performing formulations have been developed by Indian research laboratories, industry has not tried to derive benefits from this development. Many unknown products are flooding the market for brush on applications with little benefit as the products have not been standardized....
S Kumar


Assessment of wood decay in small-scale unsterile soil-bed tests
1997 - IRG/WP 97-20111
This study is concerned with the investigation of wood decay in small-scale unsterile soil-bed tests. Tests were performed with untreated heartwood samples from five hardwood species of different natural durability classes ranging from highly perishable to very resistant. Our results confirmed the critical role of soil moisture content on wood decay. The highest decay rates were observed at moistu...
L Machek, A M Derksen, R Sierra-Alvarez


A shower test protocol for measuring antisapstain wash-off from small individual log billets
1996 - IRG/WP 96-50069
According to New Zealand Timber Industry Federation statistics New Zealand exported 4,835,000 m³ of logs in 1994 and it is estimated that c. 20% were anti-sapstain treated. Loss of preservative from logs as a result of rain impact after application is of considerable concern both with respect to potential loss of efficacy and environmental contamination. Whilst Environment Canada have a proposed ...
A J Pendlebury, H Pearson


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