Osmose Utilities Services, Inc. is dedicated to the conservation of utility resources and strives to create a culture of environmental awareness both as a manufacturer and as a contractor. We will continue to support the research and development of products and services that extend the safe and reliable service lives of structural T&D assets for many years beyond what is typically expected.
As the world's leading manufacturer of wood preservatives designed for in-service poles, Osmose has established R&D priorities intended to maintain efficacy against decay and deterioration while reducing the volume of active ingredients, lowering the risks to non-target organisms and eliminating petroleum-based carriers from our product line. In addition to being environmentally preferable, Osmose preservatives and coatings increase the service lives of in-service utility infrastructure, preventing the harvest of additional trees and the subsequent environmental effects associated with the manufacture of new poles. Beginning with the requirement to harvest a mature tree, every step in the manufacture of a new pole - regardless of material choice - consumes energy and creates greenhouse gas emissions.
Each year, Osmose inspects and treats millions of utility poles, extending their useful service life and forestalling their replacement for many years. For every 100,000 poles treated or restored (rather than replaced), more than 1.8 million gallons of fuel oil and 100,000 trees are saved. That's enough oil to fuel 3,300 automobiles for an entire year and enough lumber to build more than 2,400 homes!
Learn more about the environmental impact of remedial treatment in the Osmose Green Brochure. Use the Osmose Green Worksheet to calculate the potential environmental impact YOUR utility can have by implementing a cyclical pole inspection and remedial treatment program.
Empire State Electric Energy Research Corporation (ESEERCO) commissioned O'Brien & Gere Engineers, Inc. to conduct an independent field study and associated risk assessment of remedial pole treatments and evaluate the potential ecological and human health impacts related to the application of five remedial wood preservatives to electric utility distribution poles. Among those five preservatives were four Osmose products: Osmoplastic® (preservative paste), Woodfume® (liquid fumigant), Hollow Heart® (liquid internal treatment), and Cop-R-Nap® (liquid internal treatment).
The study, conducted in the Adirondack Park wetlands, demonstrated that remedial wood preservatives have a unique affinity for wood and do not pose a significant environmental risk when properly applied.
Since that study was published many years ago, Osmose has continued to search for ways to increase the efficacy of its remedial treatments while lowering the volume of active ingredients. In 2008, Osmose released MP400-EXT, a highly-effective, waterborne remedial paste with the lowest toxicity rating of any paste on the market.
Independent testing has shown MP400-EXT treated wood to exhibit exceptional biocidal properties against wood decay fungi and insects with minimal chemical loadings. MP400-EXT exhibits low toxicity characteristics favorable to the applicator and the environment and is currently the only remedial paste on the market that has been classified as Toxicity Category III with the EPA signal word of "CAUTION" on the label.
· Contains four active ingredients for broad-spectrum control
· Controls insects and fungi with the combination of tebuconazole and bifenthrin
· Protects against soft rot with micronized oxine copper
· Waterborne formulation contains no petroleum and reduces VOC's
· Has the lowest toxicity profile of any registered paste