Handling treated $$Hroducts

2FHE LTIMBER industry has long I encouraged the use of pressure treated wood products for environmental reasons. As well, people should be urged to, whenever practical, reuse pressure treated wood products. Yet they should be aware of regulations concerning using, recycling and disposing of treated wood.

Use, reuse and disposal may be regulated by both federal and state law (and occasionally local jurisdictions). Federal law provides the basic framework. while a handful of states are more stringent in their regulations. In particular, California, Oregon and Washington have enacted stricter requirements.

Treated wood users should always be sure they understand and conform to all state and local requirements. "Just call your local state regulatory agency with jurisdiction over waste issues and ask if the state's regulations concerning used treated wood products are more stringent than federal law," explained Martin Wikstrom of the American Wood heservers Institute. "The office will be called something like the Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Environmental Regulations or Department of Natural Resources."

According to federal requirements, whether wood is inorganic arsenical (CCA, ACA or ACZA), pentachlorophenol or creosote pressure treated, it may be disposed of by ordinary trash collection or burial. Treated wood should not be burned in open fires or in stoves.

fireplaces or residential boilers because toxic chemicals may be produced as part of the smoke and ashes. Treated wood from commercial or industrial use, such as at construction sites, may be burned only in commercial or industrial incinerators or boilers in accordance with state and federal regulations.

Prolonged or frequent skin contact with pentachlorophenol or creosote treated wood should be avoided: when handling the wood, wear longsleeved shirts and long pants and use gloves impervious to the chemicals (for example, gloves that are vinylcoated). After handling the wood and before eating, drinking and use of tobacco products, wash exposed skin areas thoroughly. Clothes accumulat-

Story at a Glance

Tips for reusing and disposing of "second hand" treated wood ... AWPI revising Consumer Information Sheets.

ing preservatives and sawdust should be laundered before reuse and washed separately from other clothing.

Consumer Information Sheets (CIS) are available on all types of treated wood and explain disposal, as well as site use and handling precautions. Retailers should ensure that CIS are available to all purchasers of pressure treated wood.

Unfortunately, critics of treated wood often use statements from the sheets (originally written in 1983) against the industry. American Wood Preservers Institute has long felt that a strong overall communications program (as opposed to the EPA's narrow focus at the point of purchase) was the key to successful distribution of the CIS. To prove to EPA that a new CIS was needed, last year AWPI set up a test program at Home Depot, which included conducting exit interviews with customers. Test results showed that most signs about the CIS went unread.

AWPI shared its results with the EPA and convinced officials to adopt new language for the CIS. The modifications being made include userfriendly language that highlights the benefits of treated wood and emphasizes that common sense precautions apply to all woodworking. EPA is also considering allowing AWPI to take over distribution of the sheets for industry.

For a copy of " Management of Used Treated Wood Products," contact the American Wood Preservers Institute, 1945 OId Gallows Road, Suite 150, Vienna, Va. 22182; (703) 893-4005.

Windsor Ptywood opened' a Seattle, Wa., l-ocation Mead Clnrk Lumber, Petaluma, Ca,, is now closing Safirday and Sunday and operating a contractoi sales office.only at its Washington St., srte

Restoration Hardware Inc. has leased property in Corte Madera, Ca! to serve as regional headquarters and a central distribution site ... reporting best ever 1994 sales and profits and moving into a .superstore replacement unit in Kent, Wa., Emst Homc & Nursem .plans to open 15 new stores in th-e Western U.S. next surruner including a 66,000 sq. ft. locarion in Blue Mormtain Mall, Walla Wallq Wa....

Dwn Innbercl,osed its Federal Way, Wa., store Dec. 31 HatneBase,Irvine, Ca, ii sponsoring a consunrcr education video on rebuilding after a disaster Home D;epot, Signal Hill, Ca., was evacuated when a small fue contained in the pool chemical dept. created noxious fumes ...

Anniversari x: Larsen B rothers Lumber, San leandro, Ca., ll}th .,. Freres Lumbcr Co., Lyons, Or., 73rd ... Lane Plywood, Inc., Eugene, Or., 43rd Redwood Empire, Morgan Hill, Ca.,25th

" J. E. Higgins Lumber Co., Concord, Ca., has acquired Coast Plywood & Laminate, Oxnard, Ca. ... Timber Resources Internatiorwl (TRI), anew company to be based in Portland, Or., Ben Beddingfi-eld, pres., and Rick Schaefer, exec. v.p., is temporarily operating out of take Oswego, Or. ...

Fibreboard Corp., Walnut :Creek, Ca., will add state-of-the-

Weldwood of Canada Zad. including Port Moody and Squamish sawmills, forestry and logging operations for more than $140 million Roseburs Forest Products, Roseburg, Oi., began importing logs from Chile late last year Fitzgerald Forest Products, part of The Springfteld Group, F,ugene, Or., -opened a veneer and plywood mill in Fitzgerald, Ga.

Trans Contlnental Transport Inc. has closed its west Eueene^ Or., DC and Boise, Id:, m#hine shop with operations moved to a new 4-acre truckine center in Coburg, Or., Ken Buzi.ard, 0erminal mgr. ... National Gypsum Co. rejected a $940 million takeover by Delcor Inc. as inadequate pricewise with "highly conditional" terms

Jeld-Wen, Inc., has moved its flush door plant from Vancouver, Wa., to Williamson Business Park 20 miles north of Klamath Falls, Or. ... Masco Corp. won a Deka faucet patent infringement lawsuit against Price Pfister Inc., a Black & Decker Carp. subsidiary

Potlatch Corp., San Francisco, Ca., approved a repurchase program of up to I million shares of its common stock ... Pla.stics Research Corp. has adopted the name Tuff-Bilr for its Tuf-Tex products ...

Eagle Hardware "& Gbrden, Tirkwila, Wa, which is selling its &lmonton, Canada, stores to Wast expeqts to complete modernization of Tol.edo, Or., and Big Island, Wa., Containerboard mills and an

Ar., sawmill by early to Standard and Ca., sawmills in a $6.77 million capital expenditure program Georgia-P?c{rc Fraser Timber, parent of Revelstol<c Home Centres, phns a Anderson Luntber Co., Orenl Ut.,. . win add parking space for an additional6G65 cars

_ Home Depot remodcled its Fullerton, Ca., store; opened SalCm, Or., an6 Commerce, Ca., locations; scheduled a mid-Jan. opening for a new Boise, Id., unit

Universal Forest Products. Inc.was ranked as the"forest and paper products industry's No. I performing company by Forbes magazine International Forest Prodacts Ltd. (lnterfor) is puchasing the coaCtal "solid wood div. of

Andersen Corp., Bayport, Mn., plans to acquire R. InFlamme & Frere, St. Apollinaire, Quebec, Canada, aTJ International, Boise, Id., subsidiary ... McGraw-Hill, Inc., expectg kjlc^h_en cabinet sales to drop I% n 1995

This Old House Magazine, based on the public tv series, will debut this spring ... Mejorando Su Hogar, sponsored by Builders Square and The Stanley Works, begins its '95 season in April

Housing starts in Nov. (latest figs.) rose 77o nationally to a 1.54 million annualized rate ... sinqle tamily starts climbed 3JVo, multi- ,ff, starts ZAVo ... permits fell

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Spokane Firms Sold

Lumbermen's of Washington, Inc., Olympia, Wa., has acquired Spokane Builders Supply and the Contractor Sales Division of Exchange Lumber Co. , Spokane, Wa.

The latter acquisition was made possible through the acquisition of Exchange Lumber's wholesale division by OrePac Building Products, Wilsonville, Or., noted M. David Dittmer, pres., Lumbermen's, a division of Lanoga Corp., Redmond, Wa.

Asbestos Payments To Start

Payment by the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust at the rate of 100 on a dollar is provided for in the settlement of the class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of asbestos victims.

A New York District Court judge also has approved $55.7 million to be paid to co-defendant asbestos producers who paid Manville's share of asbestos liability during litigation over the Manville trust. Payments were halted four years ago when it appeared the trust set up in Manville's 1986 bankruptcy court reorganization would run out of assets.

Unless an appeal is made before Jan. 16, payment of claims will begin from $700 million held by the trust in cash and marketable securities. As many as 100,000 settlement offers could be made in the first year.

Window Display In Seattle

In an effort to capture a larger share of the commercial window market, Andersen Windows, Inc. has opened a commercial showroom/office facility in Seattle,Wa.

With plans to develop a model for future expansion into as many as 40 markets nationwide over the next two to five years, the company has opened similar stores in Boston, Ma., Chicago, Il., and Minneapolis, Mn. The prototype showroom of approximately 1,500 sq. ft. has full size displays of all Andersen products installed in commercial applications. Many are replicas of actual installations with interior and exterior wall materials and details of the project.

Andersen expects to conduct architectural seminars, dealer training workshops and sales and marketing activities at each showroom, according to Bill Coady at the Seattle Desisn Center.