TimberSIL Nontoxic Pressure-Treated Wood

Virtually all of the chemicals used in pressure-treated wood—CCA (chromated copper arsenate), ACQ (ammonium copper quaternary), copper azole, and even borates—are formulated to do one thing: kill organisms that decay or eat wood. It stands to reason that chemicals selected for their toxicity might also affect humans and ecosystems. Most uses of CCA have been phased out due to toxicity concerns (see EBN Vol. 11, No. 2). Both ACQ and copper azole can leach copper, which is highly toxic to many aquatic organisms. Borates are appealing because of their very low mammalian toxicity, but they are still toxic to some organisms, and we may someday discover that they are harmful in ways that haven’t been considered.

Thus, we were excited at EBN to learn about a new wood preservative that functions through an entirely different mechanism. TimberSIL™, produced by Timber Treatment Technologies, LLC (TTT), relies not on toxicity but on an inorganic mineralization process that renders wood unrecognizable as a food source. “We shut the food source off,” says Bill Beard, TTT’s executive vice president for sales and marketing.