Workers in wood industries are exposed to variable medleys of chemicals, both natural and synthetic. Additional exposures include fungi, bacteria, bark and wood dusts, solvents, paints, and various other wood coatings. These individual and conglomerate exposures have been associated with diverse occupational illnesses and hazards, including cancers. In this commentary, I summarize both experime...

Luostarinen, K. 2006. Effects of environmental and internal factors of trees and timber treatment on colour of dried birch (Betula pendula) wood. University of Joensuu, Faculty of Forestry. Wood of silver birch (Betula pendula) has good properties that lead to its extensive use in mechanical wood industries in Finland. However, a problem with sawn birch timber is the darkening of the wood durin...

Warensjö, M. 2003. Compression wood in Scots pine and Norway spruce-Distribution in relation to external geometry and the impact on dimensional stability in sawn wood. With the aid of compression wood the conifer trees are able to maintain their predetermined growth form. Compression wood is formed as soon as the tree is displaced from its normal vertical position. Trees with expressed curvatur...

CONTEXT Wood specific gravity is a key element in tropical forest ecology. It integrates many aspects of tree mechanical properties and functioning and is an important predictor of tree biomass. Wood specific gravity varies widely among and within species and also within individual trees. Notably, contrasted patterns of radial variation of wood specific gravity have been demonstrated and relate...

Research on wood-flour-filled polypropylene has primarily focused on one species of wood flour and one or two broad particle-size distributions. To fully exploit the use of wood flour as a filler, the effects of species and particle size need to be examined. This study focused on the effects of both of these variables on the properties of polypropylene filled with wood flour. To examine the eff...

From time to time, wood plays an important role in solving criminal cases. Wood samples vary in size and can range from trees and logs to pieces as small as individual wood fibers. Botanists can easily identify trees. especially when the leaves, flowers. or fruits are present. Using standard techniques. wood technologists. foresters, and wood anatomists can generally identify logs, lumber, wood...

Compressed wood, which is formed by a process that increases the wood’s density, aims to improve its strength and dimensional stability. Compressed wood can be used in building and construction, especially for construction of walls and flooring. Currently, supplies of wood are becoming limited, and the oil palm tree has become one of the largest plantation species in Malaysia. Oil palm trunk co...

Effects of wood vinegar on the activity of various insecticides were determined by measuring the mortality of two species of rice planthoppers, Nilaparvata lugens and Laodelphax striatellus. Wood vinegar itself did not show insecticidal activity on planthoppers. When the planthoppers were treated with wood vinegar mixed with one of insecticides such as BPMC, dinotefuran, imidacloprid, carbosulf...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of rosin upon fixing boron in Styrax tonkinensis (Piere) wood treated with mixtures of 3% boric acid and 1% rosin sizing agent. After treatment, wood samples were also analyzed by scanning electron microscope observation and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX). The results showed that all boron-rosin formulations impregnated Styrax ton...

Contract 8CA74759 Opinions or conclusions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Editorial comments may be addressed to the FRRAP staff chief or to the author. Executive Summary Perceptions of wood fiber merchantability are based on existing patterns of utilization. These patterns ar...