Environmental safety is an inviolable principle of operation of ELVIEX, which has established strict in-house control that guarantees the avoidance of any negative impact on the areas surrounding the factory. The company’s control system, as well as the projects it has implemented in this field are a reference point not only for the timber impregnation industries, but also for any other industry.
Internal safety control is an integral part of the daily operation of ELVIEX and includes the following measures:
Regular control of the efficiency of the environmental protection measures, in order to identify and avoid in time any effects on the water, soil and air of the wider area from the operation of the factory.
Strict control of the quality of the creosote oil supplied from abroad, so that it meets the following specifications and requirements of national and European legislation:
WEI/1982-Grade A – Specification for Coal-tar impregnating oil (Edition 1989).
AWPA – P1/P13/1991 – Standard for Coal-tar creosote for land and fresh water and marine (coastal water) use (Edition 1994).
94 Directive 94/60 / EEC / 20.12.94. (14 amendment of Directive 76/769 / EEC), according to which creosote oil must not contain benzo [a] pyrene in a concentration greater than 0.05% by mass and phenols which can be extracted with water at a concentration greater than 3% by mass.
Checking the efficiency of both the biofilter and the plant biological treatment.
Closed circuit impregnation process, so that there are no dangerous leaks.
Continuous laboratory tests of the raw material used, in order to produce superior quality products with the lowest possible emission of volatile compounds into the environment.
Archiving the results of the monthly internal and external controls, in order to prevent any accidental malfunction of the anti-pollution installations that the industry has installed in its area.
Furthermore, ELVIEX, in the context of the programMENTOR, and having previously implemented all the environmental protection measures instructed by specialized scientists, conducted from December 1993 to April 1994 a study on the effects of the operation of the industry in the surrounding area, one of the first and most comprehensive environmental impact studies in Greece.
As part of the studies, ELVIEX also collaborated with the scientific team of the European Environment Institute of the European Union (Joint Research Centre), which, accompanied by portable laboratories with the newest technology, conducted measurements in the area surrounding the industry. The results of all the above laboratory tests showed that the industry, which takes from 1990 all the protection measures, is today a productive unit, which does not cause any negative impact on the environment.
It is important to emphasize that the results of the tests have been published as scientific papersin International Scientific Conferences (Mediterranean Conference on Organic Wastes Recycling in Soils, Vieste (Foggia) – Italy, 22-25 / 9/1994 – Joint Greek – Italian Meeting on Chemistry of Biological Systems and Molecular Chemical Engineering, 18-21 / 12/1994).
