22.12.1999 Official Journal of the European Communities L 329/15 COMMISSION DECISION of 26 October 1999 concerning the national provisions notified by the Kingdom of the Netherlands concerning the limitations of the marketing and use of pentachlorophenol (PCP) (notified under document number C(1999) 3419) (Only the Dutch text is authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (1999/831/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 95(6) thereof, Whereas: ey G) I. FACTS 1. Community legislation: Directive 91/173/EEC Council Directive 76/769/EEC of 27 July 1976 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to restrictions on the marketing and use of certain dangerous substances and preparations ('), as last amended by Commission Directive 1999/77[EC (3), provides for the prohibition and restriction of the use of certain dangerous substances and preparations. Directive 76/769/[EEC is regularly amended to include in its Annex additional substances which are dangerous to man or the environment. Council Directive 91/173/EEC(*), which amends Directive 76/769[EEC for the ninth time, harmonises the placing on the market and use of pentachlorophenol (in the following: PCP) and its salts and esters. Directive 91/173[EEC prohibits the marketing and use of PCP and its salts and esters in substances or preparations in a concentration equal to or greater than 0,1% by mass. However, four exceptions are granted. The use of PCP and its compounds in industrial installations is permitted: () OJ L 262,27.9.1976, p. 201. () OJ L 207, 6.8.1999, p. 18. () OJ L 85, 5.4.1991, p. 34. (a) for the treatment of wood. However, treated wood may not be used inside buildings and not for the manufacture of containers intended for growing purposes or packaging which may come into contact with products intended for human and/or animal consumption; (b) for the impregnation of fibres and heavy-duty textiles not intended for clothing or for decorative furnishings; (c) as a synthesising and/or processing agent in industrial processes; (d) for the in situ treatment of buildings of cultural and historic interest (subject to individual authorisation by the Member State concerned) as a remedial treatment of timber and masonry infected by dry rot fungus and cubic rot fungi. In any event, PCP as such or as a constituent of preparations used on the basis of the exceptions referred to above must have a total hexachlorodibenzo- paradioxine (H6CDD) content of less than four parts per million. The substances and preparations concerned may not be placed on the market except in packages of 20 litres or more, may not be sold to the general public and must, in addition to the labelling required by other Community provisions, be labelled with the sentence ‘Reserved for industrial and professional use’. The Directive provided that these exceptions had to be reconsidered in the light of changes in knowledge and technology no later than three years after the implementation of the Directive. The first review of the Directive was carried out in the course of 1995. Discussions within the working group on limitations of the marketing and use of dangerous substances and preparations led to the conclusion not to amend Directive 76/769/EEC as far as PCP is concerned, as the group held the opinion that the assessment of possible substitutes had not led to acceptable results and needed further examination.