Retailers will have until December 31, 2022 to sell all of their containers of creosote products for agriculture.
Creosote is a wood preservative first approved as a biocide in 2011. It is used to treat electricity poles, railway sleepers, agricultural and equestrian fencing and poles used in vineyards.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), has today (Friday, November 18) confirmed that a regulation renewing the approval for the biocide for vacuum pressure impregnation of wood used for railway sleepers and telecommunication poles only has been agreed at EU level, details which Agriland had revealed last month.
The authorisations of creosote-containing products will be amended to prohibit the sale and use of such products to treat agricultural/equine fencing.
The following period of grace will be applied in Ireland:
- December 31, 2022 – final sell out at retail level of containers of creosote products;
- February 28, 2023 – final date for professional users to use creosote products for treatment of fencing;
- April 30, 2023 – final date for placing on the market and sale of timber treated with creosote except for railway sleepers and telecommunication poles.
By December 31, 2022, stores, merchants and importers must ensure that all stocks of these types of products are sold to professional end-users or else returned to their supplier.
From April 30, 2023, it will be prohibited to place on the market and sell agricultural/equine fencing that has been treated with creosote.
Stocks of creosote treated timber not sold by this date may be subject to destruction as hazardous waste or subject to re-export outside of the EU.
The DAFM specification for fencing will be updated to reflect the changed status of the wood preservative.
All timber fencing posts purchased for grant-aided fencing must be treated and certified in accordance with regulations. The enforcement of this regulation lies with the DAFM.