IRG Newsletter 0606

06/2006 20 December

Member News

Regulatory News

Europe: Chromium: Active substance or fixative?
As could be expected, the discussion on whether Chromium is an active substance or whether it only acts as a fixation agent still continues on national and European level.
Please find here an overview , prepared by the EU Commission, based on the reports given by the EU Member States.
Source: WEI Doc. 3224; 11 Dec 2006.

Korea: KFRI to stop quality certification on CCA-treated wood
Amidst intensifying arguments on the hazards of CCA-treated wood in Korea, the Korea Forest Research Institute, which operates the quality certification system for wood products, has recently decided not to issue quality certificates for CCA-treated wood products from 2007. Source: NZT&E.
(From Friday Offcuts – 10 November 2006.
Read more

Australia: National strategy to address waste timber
A national strategy for waste timber is set to be developed by the Timber Development Association of NSW (TDA) in partnership with Australian Plantation Products and Paper Industry Council (A3P), which encourages producers to take more responsibility for the use and disposal of their timber products.
Read more about the Australian strategy to address waste timber

Business News

Corrosion of steel fasteners with new timber preservatives
Around the world, restrictions are being applied to use of copper-chromium-arsenic (CCA) treated timber.
(From Friday Offcuts – 24 November 2006.
Read more

Is recycled plastic lumber a viable alternative for pallets?
The pallet industry is constantly searching for cost effective alternative materials to manufacture pallets. Could lumber made out of recycled plastic be the answer? Researchers at Virginia Tech’s Center for Unit Load Design have studied the potential of recycled plastic lumber (RPL) and have come up with some potentially surprising results.
Read more

Scientific News

IUFRO: Erasmus Mundus MSc programmes
We would like to draw your attention to two Erasmus Mundus MSc programmes that may be of interest to students at your own institution or at institutions within your professional network. Both programmes are two-year integrated Masters Courses in Forestry but with a different profile:

SUFONAMA (Sustainable Forest and Nature Management): The overall objective is to qualify graduates to deal with the challenges of modern natural resources management in Europe and other temperate regions, that is, sustainable management of forests and nature areas in an integrated landscape context.

SUTROFOR (Sustainable Tropical Forestry): The overall objective is to qualify graduates to deal with the challenges in contemporary tropical forestry, that is, sustainable tropical forestry management is becoming increasingly complex due to improved knowledge and a growing demand for products and services.

Full descriptions of the two Erasmus Mundus MSc programmes, inclusive of application procedure and forms, are found on: http://www.sufonama.net and on http://www.sutrofor.net

There are fifty scholarships available: each of EUR 42,000 (EUR 21,000 annually for two years).
Application deadline for non-EU students is 1 February 2007, for EU students 17 August 2007.

We would appreciate if you distribute this information about the two new MSc programmes as widely as possible. They have a different profile but both of them offers great opportunities to highly motivated and internationally minded students.

Dr Carsten Smith Olsen, Director of SUTROFOR and Dr Niels Strange, Director of SUFONAMA
The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University
Danish Centre for Forest, Landscape and Planning
Rolighedsvej 23
DK - 1958 Frederiksberg C
Denmark

Please find the necessary forms for application here:
Application Form for SUFONAMA - 2007
Call for student applications 2007_SUFONAMA
Application Form for SUTROFOR - 2007
Call for student applications 2007_SUTROFOR

Third European Conference on Wood Modification
The field of wood modification has received considerable exposure within recent IRG conferences, emphasising the continued development of these technologies. Many processing have, or are about to be commercialised.
Read more

New Zealand: Sawmill workers study highlights dust issues
New Zealand sawmill workers have a significant reduction in lung function and are more likely to have allergies compared with other workers, according to a new study by the Centre for Public Health Research.
Read more about sawmill workers and dust issues

People in the News

In Memoriam - Kentaro Suzuki
IRG expresses condolences to the family and friends of Mr Kentaro Suzuki, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Tsukuba Norin, Japan, who passed away on October 28, in Okinawa Island, caused by a problem of the main artery. He was 60 years old.
He joined the IRG 1986, since then he attended almost every IRG Annual meeting. He had been involved in research on wood protection at the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute since 1970. His last position was as director of Wood-based materials Department. His main research fields were termites, Lyctus, and service life of buildings. He contributed to ISO/TC165, JIS and JAS (Japan Agricultural Standard).

IRG Secretariat News

IRG 38 at the Jackson Lake Lodge, US

The IRG 38 meeting of the International Research Group on Wood Protection will be held on May 20 - 24, 2007 at the Jackson Lake Lodge in the Grand Teton National Park in the state of Wyoming.
The invitation and registration package is now available on the IRG 38 website.
Read the Message from the IRG 38 Organizing Committee

IRG 38 reminder
As potential themes for special sessions at the next meeting, the following were discussed in the Scientific Programme Committee (SPC) in Tromsø:

Coatings
Coatings and aesthetics; see below "Coatings and aesthetics"
Quality control for non-biocidal treatments
Review of promotional activities
Prediction of Service Life; see below "Service Life Prediction"
Life Cycle Analysis of treated wood and competing materials

Members interested in those themes and ready to present papers are advised to contact Dr Gérard Deroubaix, chairman of the SPC, or the IRG Secretariat.

Special Session on "Coatings and aesthetics for wood surface protection"
Special Session on "Coatings and aesthetics for wood surface protection" Section 3: Wood Protecting Chemicals.
Submission for oral and poster presentations at the 38-th IRG Symposium in Jackson Lake, Wyoming, USA, on May 20-24, 2007, are requested for the special session on surface wood protection, part of Section 3: Wood Protecting Chemicals. The suggested topics expected to be covered in the scientific papers submitted for this session should be as follow:

Studies on wood surface characterization, modifications and degradations due to various external factors such as UV and weathering, mineral and enzymatic stain, evaluate other potential discolorations of the original aspect or color of a wood surface.
Studies on interaction between wood surface and various wood preservative capable to protect and preserve the aesthetic of wood surface.
Coatings for wood surface protections
Nano-technology for coatings and surface treatments aimed to improve or preserve the aesthetic aspects of a wood surface
Chemical modifications of wood surfaces aimed in improving the aesthetics.
Effect of wood species on resistance to UV and weathering degradation of a wood surface.
Novel analytical tools to explore and evaluate the wood surface changes due to various external factors such as UV degradation, weathering, staining other then fungal in nature.
Industrial applications and technologies for wood surface treatment aimed to preserve the aesthetic of the wood.

Dr Radu Craciun
Vice chair of Section 3

Special Seminar on "Service Life Prediction"
Individual papers or country perspectives are welcome covering the field of Service Life Prediction (SLP) and Performance Classification

Tools and methods of SLP.
Concepts for SLP.
Examples and results.

Dr Andreas O Rapp
Vice chair of Section 4

Deadline for submission of full papersand poster abstracts
Please note that the deadline for contributions of full papers and poster abstracts is 15 March 2007 and for registration 30 April 2007.

Nominations for the Executive Council and Scientific Programme Committee
This is a reminder to Members to nominate candidates to the Executive Council in 2007.
2 new members and a new Vice-President will be elected, one representing the Members and one representing the Group's sponsors.
The detailed procedure is described in the Nomination Procedure for Officers and nominations must be made on the appropriate form to the Chairman of the Nominations Sub-Committee via the IRG Secretariat.
Only valid nominations received by 31 March 2007 will be considered.
New teams for Section 4 (Processes and properties) and Section 5 (Environmental aspects) will also be appointed at the IRG 38 Annual Meeting. Candidates for Vice Chairs for Section 4 and Section 5 may also be proposed. This can be done by e-mail to the IRG Secretariat by 31 March 2007.

Membership and Sponsorship renewals
Invoices for 2007 have been mailed just before Christmas. The easiest way to renew membership and sponsorship is to take advantage of the secure online renewal function on the IRG website.
Please pay your dues by 31 January 2007.

IRG Directory in MS Excel format
All contact details of IRG Members and Sponsors have been fed into a spread sheet (MS Excel). The data of the spread sheet can be imported to MS Outlook. A draft will be sent shortly from the Secretariat for review of addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses.
The final version will then be sent to all Members and Sponsors together with an instruction on how to import the file to the MS Outlook e-mail software.

Please note the new postal address to the IRG Secretariat
New postal address of the IRG Secretariat is:

Sponsor the IRG e-Newsletter in 2007
IRG regular sponsors and members' institutes are kindly invited to sponsor the production of the IRG e-Newsletter in order to cover the costs involved for production of the same.
The IRG e-Newsletter is scheduled for six issues per year, and for each issue a sponsor is welcome. The fee for sponsoring the e-Newsletter is USD 450 (SEK 3 000) in 2007. The e-Newsletter sponsor will then get the company/institute logo on the front page and a link to the company/institute website.
Sponsors so far have been: Arch (UK), Arch (US), CSI, Dr Wolman GmbH, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Lanxess, Nisus Corporation, Osmose (US), Troy Corporation, US Borax and Dyrup (DK).
Please contact the IRG Secretariat, if you are interested in sponsoring the e-Newsletter.

Legal Information
Read legal information here

Editorial
If you have information related to wood protection being of general interest for Regular Members, Student Members or IRG Sponsors, please email to the NiB editor with the name of the web page and the URL.