Dust up: lndustry working to meet Prop 65 requirements

Qnwn,ttls. wHoLESALERS and retailLJers are geaflng up to meet requlrements under California's Proposition 65 law to post consumer and employee warnings regarding wood dust.

Wood dust was added to the list of more than 800 chemicals and other substances under Proposition 65 in December 2009. The final rule went into effect on December 18, 20 10. Under the law, wood product manufacturers and wholesalers must send the warnings about wood dust to their retailer customers and retailers have the responsibility to post warning signs and materials at the point of sale for wood products.

Western Wood Products Association and the Lumber Association of California & Nevada met with the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and the California Attorney General's office to develop the necessary materials for communicating the wood dust warnings. In November, LACN began contacting retailers and made signage available to meet the law.

WWPA has developed a wood dust notification service to assist manufacturers and wholesalers in informing their retailer customers, as required. In December, WWPA sent wood dust warning materials to more than 2,300 wholesalers, retailers and other wood users in California and surrounding states on behalf of some 20 sawmills and distributors.

Since receipt of the warning materials must be confirmed, the WWPA service makes it easier for companies to comply. Retailers and wholesalers can fill out one form, either online or by fax, that will cover multiple manufacturers and distributors.

Subscribers to this service must provide a customer list in a predefined Excel format and WWPA will contact the customers, confirm receipt of the warning information, and provide a report back to the company of the confirmed customers. All customer lists received by WWPA will be kept confidential. rF*o YEARS Aco. a Merchqnt I Magazine article introduced readers to WoodWorks, the first largescale program with the objective of growing wood's share of the U.S. non-residential building market. An initiative of the Wood Products Council, WoodWorks is a collaborative effort of wood associations, research organizations and govern-

Should a subscriber be involved in a Proposition 65 claim, WWPA can provide documentation that the distributor or retailer received the warning materials and acknowledged their receipt of the warning.

The Wood Dust Notification Service is available for $2,500 plus $l for each customer contact submitted. A signed agreement is necessary to begin the service. For more information on the service, contact WWPA at info@wwpa.org.

LACN is offering ready-to-post signs for retailers. Order signs from LACN at www.lumberassociation.org.

Go to the Fair

Wood Solutions Fairs are North America's premier educational forums for non-residential wood design, featuring a full day of seminars combined with a wood-exclusive trade show. They have proven highly successful during the WoodWorks pilot, attracting an average of 500 architects, engineers and others with an interest in wood's exciting design possibilities.

WoodWorks is seeking exhibitors and sponsors for the following Fairs: ment agencies. It was introduced as a pilot program in seven states and is now being evaluated to determine whether it should evolve into a national program serving the entire continental U.S.

February 15- Raleigh, N.C.

February 17 - Atlanta, Ga.

March 2- Long Beach, Ca.

March 16 - San Francisco, Ca.

AprilT - Minneapolis, Mn.

Visit woodworks.org for details.

The purpose of WoodWorks is to encourage the use of wood as a structural and finish material for buildings typically designed in steel and concrete, even though wood is permitted by code-such as schools, big box retailers, recreational facilities, offices, and mid-rise/multi-family. Through the program, architects, engineers and others can request free one-on-one support to address technical or code issues. They can attend free educational events or take advantage of the many online resources available at woodworks.org.

Although three years is not enough time to assess the program's influence against its ultimate objective of market share growth, opinion data collected during the pilot phase, combined with the results of two third-party program audits provide strong indications that the program is indeed working.

Based on benchmarks established in 2008 and re-measured in 20 10, opinion research firm Ducker Worldwide concluded that "clear improvement in the perceptions of wood for non-residential use have been made on the key attitudinal variables used to measure industry decision makers." These variables include: awareness of WoodWorks (up 20Va), interest in learning more (up l87o), overall satisfaction (up3Vo) and likelihood to recommend (up .s%).

The "net" attitudinal improvement for wood-as compared to specifier opinions regarding steel and concrete-was also measured across a wide range of variables. Although wood didn't advance in every category, it did so in the vast majority, which greatly closed the historic gap or preference for steel and concrete in non-residential construction.

These shifts in opinion were influenced on numerous fronts, by the combination of many activities. For example, with several months remaining in the pilot, WoodWorks has provided support for 135 building projects completed or under construction and another 270 projects at the planning stage. Field teams have made more than 32,000 direct contacts with design and building professionals through face-to-face meetings and educational events. Advertising and other communications efforts have reached more than 10 million people.

WoodWorks has produced a wide range of resource materials, and design professionals can visit woodworks.org to earn AIA/CES LUs and PDH credits without leaving their desks.

The program has also tackled a number of fundamental impediments to non-residential wood use in the U.S. For example:

To address a lack of wood design software being used by engineers. WoodWorks partnered with RISA Technologies. As a result, RISA developed a full range of wood design features for its popular RISAFloor and RISA-3D software programswhich users can now use to design all-wood and hybrid buildings. As part of the agreement, WoodWorks bought 200 licenses to give away free to engineers who agree to design a wood building within six months, which has already resulted in the design of more than 120 wood buildings.

. To address the lack of wood desisn education offered to universi- ty-level engineering students, WoodWorks partnered with California Polytechnic State University. Working with universities and colleges nationwide, Cal Poly is leading the development of 30 wood design modules that can be used in undergraduate and graduate-level engineering programs and provided online for practicing engineers.

One of the most promising findings of the evaluation process is that WoodWorks has already surpassed its five-year objectives and, depending on the level of funding moving forward, is expected to increase these targets by between 257o and 50Vo.For lumber, this represents a total increase in consumption of 1,280 million board feet to 1,540 million board feet (respectively).

If you haven't already done so, we hope that you will leverage the achievements made to date for the benefit of your own organization-by making use of materials developed on behalf of the entire wood industry, for example, or participating in WoodWorks events.