According to the Council of European Producers of Materials for Construction (CEPMC), more than 20,000 different products and materials are used in Europe for constructing buildings and infrastructure. For the purposes of the research project, the diverse range of construction products used was limited to products for which a mandate has been issued by the European Commission to the European standardisation and technical approval organisations, CEN and EOTA, for respectively drawing up harmonised European standards and technical approval guidelines. The mandates that have been issued until now (28 mandates to CEN and 20 mandates to EOTA) are structured similarly. For the purposes of specifying dangerous substances whose release and/or content could endanger health and the environment, they provide the following important information:
• Intended use of the construction product
• Field of application of the construction products with the materials used (exemplary)
• Requirements concerning the performance characteristics to be defined by the harmonised technical specifications such as hygiene, health and the environment, stability and safety in case of fire
• Attestation of conformity systems
• General passage on dangerous substances (Annex 4)
The release of dangerous substances is referred to in the part of each mandate that deals with the requirements concerning the performance characteristics for "hygiene, health and the environment" and that are to be defined by the respective standard or technical approval.
Some mandates also list specific dangerous substances that are to be considered in the technical specifications. These always only concern, however, the substances asbestos, formaldehyde, pentachlorophenol (PCP), cadmium, heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and/or radioactivity.
Annex 4 states that all legal provisions (including national provisions) for dangerous substances are to be complied with. Furthermore, it also stipulates that, if applicable, legal provisions for materials used in construction products shall also be complied with even if they are outside the scope of the Construction Products Directive, such as occupational health and safety regulations. For assisting writers of technical specifications, it also refers to the EU database, which lists regulations of the Member States and the European Union on dangerous substances from/in construction products.
In terms of the release behaviour and/or content of dangerous substances from/in construction products, this research project only considers the mandates issued to CEN for developing harmonised European product standards. Due to the extent of the material it was not possible to consider the mandates issued to EOTA as well.
By stating the materials used and the intended use of the construction products, the assessment of the CEN mandates provides information on the possible release of dangerous substances to the environmental media of soil, groundwater and indoor spaces and/or on the content of dangerous substances. However, it is generally only possible to make a real assessment of the leaching and emission behaviour of dangerous substances from construction products by evaluating tests that have been carried out. The following sources were drawn upon for determining the release and/or content of dangerous substances:
• Published research material (e.g. research reports on the release behaviour of dangerous substances from construction products; databases such as Ecobis 2000 –
ökologisches Baustoffinformationssystem ('Ecological Construction Material Information System')).
• Information from construction product trade associations (e.g. Verein deutscher Zementwerke, Deutsche Bauchemie, European Panel Federation)
• Product information from manufacturers
• Expert committees at the DIBt and other specialist bodies
• Own knowledge concerning the field of technical approvals
The large number of CEN mandates meant that although they were evaluated, within the framework of the project it was only possible to research some of the mandated construction products in detail. As an example for the release of dangerous substances to soil and groundwater, the concrete constituents cement, aggregates, concrete additions and admixtures were selected as these are construction products that are used on a large scale and are practically ubiquitous. The main focus was on evaluating studies on the leaching behaviour of dangerous substances. With regard to the leaching behaviour, there is a potential risk to the environment due to the release and/or content of inorganic substances such as heavy metals.
Floorings were selected as an example for the release of dangerous substances in indoor spaces as these are used on a large scale in indoor spaces and thus represent a potential source of emissions. With floorings, volatile organic compounds present a particular risk to the health of building users.
CEN mandates for road construction materials have also been issued by the European Commission. In Germany, according to § 1 (2) of the Musterbauordnung – MBO ('Model Building Code'), public transport works (including ancillaries such as road construction materials) are not the responsibility of the Laender as is the case with construction works and products. Because they come under a separate area of regulations, these products were not taken into consideration in this research project.
The following table lists the CEN mandates. Construction products that were considered in detail are highlighted in bold.
Table 1: CEN mandates for developing harmonised European construction product standards (not including public transport works and reaction to fire)
No. Mandate No. Mandate
1 M 100 Precast concrete products
2 M 101 Doors, windows and related products
3 M 102 Membranes
4 M 103 Thermal insulating products 5 M 104 Structural bearings
6 M 105 Chimneys, flues and specific products 7 M 106 Gypsum products
8 M 107 Geotextiles
9 M 108 Curtain walling
10 M 109 Fixed fire fighting systems 11 M 110 Sanitary appliances
12 M 112 Structural timber products and ancillaries 13 M 113 Wood-based panels and related products
14 M 114 Cements, building limes and other hydraulic binders 15 M 115 Reinforcing and prestressing steel for concrete
16 M 116 Masonry products
17 M 118 Waste water engineering products
18 M 119 Floorings
19 M 120 Structural metallic products and ancillaries 20 M 121 Internal and external wall and ceiling finishes
21 M 122 Roof coverings, roof lights, roof windows and ancillary products
22 M 125 Aggregates
23 M 127 Construction adhesives
24 M 128 Products related to concrete, mortar and grout 25 M 129 Space heating appliances
26 M 131 Pipe-tanks and ancillaries not in contact with water intended for human consumption
27 M 135 Flat glass, profiled glass and glass block products
28 M 136 Construction products in contact with water intended for human consumption
The evaluation of the mandates that are not considered in detail is presented in the form of a list in Annex A4. The list provides information on:
• the intended use of the construction product
• possible materials used
• construction product standards that are already published in the Official Journal of the European Union
• dangerous substances that can be potentially released and
• voluntary regulations that include information on substance prohibitions and restrictions.
As already mentioned, it was not possible to consider all the construction products in detail due to the enormous range of material and substances. Nevertheless, the release behaviour of dangerous substances must be examined in detail for all construction products in order to ascertain which requirements regarding health and environmental criteria must be incorporated in the technical specifications.
It also needs to be taken into account that construction products are used in the European Union for which mandates for developing harmonised European standards have not yet been issued, but which nevertheless present a potentially high risk to health and the environment.
In order to exclude a risk as defined by the Construction Products Directive, all product groups should be mandated that can be defined as construction products in accordance with the Construction Products Directive and for which at least one Essential Requirement from the Construction Products Directive applies. In terms of the Essential Requirement No. 3
"Hygiene, Health and the Environment", this affects, in addition to product groups that are already mandated, such as specific floorings and wall coverings, currently non-mandated product groups such as dyes, paints, anti-corrosive agents and adhesives in the non-load-bearing area as well as soil injection agents.
Thus the research project mainly presents a methodical approach for taking account of the Essential Requirement No.3 in technical specifications that, in principle, would be applied analogously to all construction products within the scope of the Construction Product Directive.