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The OECD Emission Scenario Document (ESD) on Wood Preservatives is an essential tool to estimate the emission of chemicals from wood treated with wood preservatives.  The ESD was first published in 2003, and recently a revision has been published that includes revised and new emission scenarios.

The ESD considers emissions from two stages of the wood preservatives’ life cycles:

• Emissions from application (industrial and in situ applications by professionals and amateurs) and storage of treated wood prior to shipment, and
  
  
• Emissions from treated wood in service.

The original ESD has been used around the world since 2003, and in this time a lot of experience has been gained working with it and additional documents on the estimation of emissions of wood preservatives have been prepared. As a result, the OECD ESD needed to be revised.

Major changes to the former version of 2003 can be summarised as follows:

• New scenarios, identified as missing in the original version, have been prepared, approved and included in the ESD;
  
  
• The description of the wood preservative industry and process descriptions have been updated;
  
  
• Specific changes concerning Europe have been identified and included;
  
  
• The structure of the ESD has been revised to reflect its new and updated content.