Environmental Project, 940 – Survey of dioxin emission from PCP-treated wood

Survey of Dioxin Emission from PCP-treated Wood

1 Introduction

In the Substance Flow Analyses for dioxin from 2000 and 2003, evaporation of dioxin from pentachlorophenol treated wood is mentioned as a possible source of a perhaps significant dioxin emission to air in the order of 0.5 - 26 g I- TEQ/year [Hansen, 2000] and [Hansen and Hansen, 2003].

The size of the interval reflects the large uncertainty connected with the estimate due to the lacking knowledge regarding the fate of the dioxins in pentachlorophenol-treated wood. Figure 1 shows the total mass balance of chlorinated dioxins in Denmark, as it was summed up in [Hansen and Hansen, 2003]. The emission from PCP-treated wood is included in the figure of "Other sources" and it shows that dioxin from PCP-treated wood can be both a rather important and a modest source of the total dioxin emission to air, depending on the end of the interval in which the true size of the emission can be found.

Figure 1 Balance of chlorinated dioxins in Denmark 2000 - 2002 (all figures in g I-TEQ/year). [Hansen and Hansen, 2003]

Figure 1 Balance of chlorinated dioxins in Denmark 2000 - 2002 (all figures in g I-TEQ/year). [Hansen and Hansen, 2003]

This project has the objective of giving an indication at the screening level, of whether dioxin emission from PCP-treated wood shall be considered as a substantial source of the total dioxin emission to air. Because of the limited amount of samples of PCP-treated wood the project is not a full investigation of the problem, but it can give a more precise knowledge regarding the dioxin content in PCP-preserved wood in Denmark and its emission to the environment.