Wood preservation: stopping termite destruction and making safer wood preservatives

Papers in this symposium are only embargoed until date and time of presentation.

Treasured wooden structures throughout the United States are being destroyed by wood-eating organisms, including shipworms, termites and fungi. From historic buildings in New Orleans' French Quarter to wooden piers and boats in the harbors of New York, Boston and San Diego, wood-eating organisms have waged a relentless attack resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars of structural damage and lost revenue.

Researchers are gaining new insights into these wood-eating pests and developing promising new methods to minimize or eliminate their threats. These and other studies concerning the chemistry of wood degradation and preservation will be the focus of a two-day symposium April 4-5 at the 221st national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. Selected studies are described below.

Controlling the destructive shipworm - Shipworms, also known as termites of the sea, are destroying wooden structures in harbors throughout the world. Efforts to curb the appetite of the worm-like creatures have often failed. New approaches may provide a way to stop them:

• Dan Distel, Ph.D., of the University of Maine, is studying the bacteria that live inside shipworms and are responsible for the wood degradation they cause. A recent discovery that these populations contain several different bacterial species that must be transmitted from one generation of shipworm to the next may provide clues to slowing the reproduction of shipworms, thereby delaying or preventing damage to wood. (The paper on this research, CELL 88, will be presented at 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, April 4, in the San Diego Convention Center, Room 11A.)

Exploring the secret lives of termites - Researchers will discuss new insights into the little known feeding and nesting habits of the infamous Formosan subterranean termite, which has destroyed homes in New Orleans and Hawaii and whose range of expansion now threatens San Diego. The researchers hope that their studies will lead to better termite control methods:

• J. Kenneth Grace, Ph.D., of the University of Hawaii, is studying the mysterious organisms that live inside the termite and enable them to damage wood. He will discuss how termite physiology can be manipulated to control these home-wrecking pests. (The paper on this research, CELL 89, will be presented at 10:15 a.m., Wednesday, April 4, in the San Diego Convention Center, Room 11A.)

• Claudia Husseneder, Ph.D., also of the University of Hawaii, will describe how she is using molecular genetic methods to track the wanderings of termites, identify individual termite colonies, and discover how their society is organized. (The paper on this research, CELL 115, will be presented at 10:45 a.m., Thursday, April 5, in the San Diego Convention Center, Room 11A)

Crafting a better wood preservative - Environmental disposal concerns have limited or curtailed the use of many wood preservatives. The following studies will describe new concepts for developing safer preservatives:

• Barry Halliwell, Ph.D., of the National University of Singapore, will deliver the keynote presentation in a special section on wood deterioration mechanisms. Halliwell is a noted expert on the role of free radicals and antioxidants in human health and disease. He will provide a general discussion of free radical chemistry, which researchers believe may be a key tool in controlling brown rot, a wood-destroying fungus that causes millions of dollars in structural damage to homes and buildings in the United States each year. (The paper on this research, CELL 98, will be presented at 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 4, in the San Diego Convention Center, Room 11A.)

• Tor P. Schultz, Ph.D., of Mississippi State University, will discuss academic research efforts to create new, environmentally friendly preservatives whose ability to fight fungi (wood rot) and insects is enhanced by the addition of antioxidants and metal chelators. (The paper on this research, CELL 123, will be presented at 1:30 p.m., Thursday, April 5, in the San Diego Convention Center, Room 11A.)

• Liam E. Leightley, Ph.D., of Rohm and Haas Company, Philadelphia, will discuss the commercial development of new wood protection products, including "designer formulations" that are more specific and less toxic to the environment than traditional products. (The paper on this research, CELL 124, will be presented at 2:00 p.m., Thursday, April 5, in the San Diego Convention Center, Room 11A.)