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. This large group of construction products, which represents an essential economic factor within the European economic area, is mostly unknown in terms of the release of dangerous substances and their effect on human health and the environment.
Retrospectively it can be established that preventive measures must be taken if harm is to be avoided, such as that caused by the known dangerous substances asbestos, formaldehyde and pentachlorophenol (PCP). However, already during the manufacturing stage of the construction products, more knowledge is needed on the products, their manufacturing processes, constituents and emission potential than previously existed.
The background to this research project is the fact that, due to a lack of boundary conditions in the first generation of European technical specifications, no health and environmental requirements for construction products are included, i.e. the Essential Requirement No. 3
"Hygiene, Health and the Environment" required by the Construction Products Directive (CPD) has not yet been implemented. It is envisaged that the implementation should occur in the second generation of the technical specifications. For this purpose an implementation concept was developed as part of the research project, which incorporates the current European developments. Recommendations have been devised for selected construction products, which should be taken into account in revising the technical specifications.
The range of construction products used has been restricted to products for which a mandate for the development of harmonised European standards has been issued by the European Commission to CEN, the European Committee for Standardisation.
The research project also provides a review of concepts for assessing the release of dangerous substances from construction products in soil, groundwater and indoor spaces.
Based on the German protection level and the procedures established here, recommendations were devised for observing health and environmental requirements, which should be taken into account when revising the technical specifications.
This research project provides standardisation and approval committees with detailed information on the possibilities for transposing the Essential Requirement No. 3 into the technical specifications. For the exemplary construction products "concrete constituents" and
"floorings", the study provides detailed information on the composition of products and the release behaviour of dangerous substances. Furthermore, recommendations have been drawn up that show where there is need for further action and more extensive studies to exclude risks to users of the works and their immediate environment. The description of more extensive concepts for assessing the effects of construction products on soil, ground water and indoor spaces and the description of various national and European testing methods for determining the leaching into soil and groundwater provide a comprehensive overview of the subject area. No detailed descriptions were made of the testing methods for emissions in indoor spaces as there are already European testing methods that only require harmonisation.
As an example for the release of dangerous substances in soil and groundwater, the mandated concrete constituents cement, aggregates, concrete additions and admixtures were selected as these mass-produced construction materials are used on a significantly large scale. With regard to the release of dangerous substance in indoor spaces, the
floorings mandate was chosen (textile, resilient, laminate, solid wood/wood-based panel floorings), as floorings can represent a substantial emission source as a result of their large surface area in indoor spaces.
In terms of this selection of construction products it should be noted that it was necessary to restrict their number due to the diversity of construction products. However, it should not be inferred that the selected construction products are particularly potentially hazardous to health or the environment. For all other mandated construction products, information on potentially releasable dangerous substances has been collected and systemised. These are described in Annex A4 in the form of a list of mandated construction products. Against this background, this report should also be understood as a reference work for selected construction products.
The following can be determined on the current state of the implementation of the Construction Products Directive (CPD):
Until now, the European Commission has issued around 30 mandates to the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and around 20 mandates to the European Organisation for Technical Approvals (EOTA) for the purpose of respectively developing harmonised European standards and technical approval guidelines for construction products.
With the implementation of the Essential Requirement No. 3 required by the mandates, the lack of harmonised testing methods for determining the release of dangerous substances has proved to be a considerable problem. The work of the European Commission in drawing up mandates for harmonised testing methods for dangerous substances needs to be seen in this context.
In addition to drawing up mandates for harmonised testing methods for dangerous substances, the European Commission has developed a database for regulated substances that provides information on European and national regulations for dangerous substances.
In order to ensure that the Essential Requirement No. 3 is rigorously observed in the technical specifications, the research project proposes a tiered concept. For the purpose of assessing the potential release behaviour of dangerous substances, information is required on both the chemical composition as well as on the planned use of products in building structures.
The research project proposes dividing the vast majority of mandated construction products into three groups: WFT products (WFT – Without Further Testing), standardised products for further testing and approved products for further testing.
With products that are suitable for inclusion in a WFT product list, detailed descriptions of the composition would ensure that no dangerous substances are released. This mostly concerns proven products for which there has been long-term experience in their use. For these products, no additional tests are necessary to fulfil the health and environmental requirements. The corresponding technical specifications should indicate that the respective product is a WFT product.
Construction products that are not suitable for inclusion in the list of WFT products should remain as standardised products if they fulfil specific prerequisites. This concerns products whose composition can be sufficiently described, which are composed of a limited number of substances, and where the dangerous substances to be determined can be specified. With these products, the dangerous substances that can be released must be tested. The levels, classes or declared values for the pollution parameters should be stated in the CE labelling.
However, a complete evaluation of all constituents will for the most part be very difficult.
Therefore, for standardised products, more extensive testing and evaluation concepts should also be drawn upon.
Products that are composed of diverse substances should be manufactured in accordance with a European technical approval. This generally concerns innovative products where there is no knowledge about the release behaviour. Individual tests should also normally be conducted when using wastes. The testing of emittable dangerous substances should be
based on existing specific knowledge about the chemical composition, thus combining a descriptive and a performance-related approach. Whether products are to be subject to standards or approvals should be determined by the European Commission at the mandate level.
This approach is illustrated in more specific terms by using selected concrete constituents and floorings as examples.
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.
Synopsis
In terms of the release behaviour and/or content of dangerous substances from/in construction products, this research project was only able to consider the mandates issued to CEN for developing harmonised European product standards since it would have gone beyond the scope of this study to consider the mandates issued to EOTA as well.
By stating the materials used and the intended use of the construction products, the evaluation of the CEN mandates provides information on both the possible release of dangerous substances in the environmental media of soil, groundwater and indoor spaces and on the content of dangerous substances. However, it is generally only possible to make a concrete evaluation of the leaching and emission behaviour of dangerous substances from construction products by evaluating tests that have been carried out.
By using specific examples of selected construction products, this research project has made the first steps in systematically examining the health and environmental protection in European technical specifications. The study has shown that a detailed examination is required for all construction products. Here it needs to be born in mind that the individual construction products were selected as examples because there is a comparatively significant amount of knowledge on their release behaviour. It can generally be established that far too little significance has been attached to the release of dangerous substances. This also needs to be seen in view of the fact that many substances do not have any test procedures. At the same time, within the European Union there are many different national test procedures for individual substances. If the health and environmental requirements are to be adequately formulated, it is necessary that all Member States define harmonised European test methods.
There must be greater research on the often unknown release behaviour of dangerous substances from construction products and on the lack of test methods. Mandates for harmonised test methods are currently being drawn up. However, the test methods are unlikely to be adopted before 2008. Therefore, it is urgent that interim solutions are developed for the intermediate period.
Finally, it needs to be pointed out that only the phase of use of the construction products has been considered until now within the scope of the Construction Product Directive. For health and ecological reasons, however, the entire life of a product should be considered in the evaluation. In addition to the phase of use, the manufacture and disposal of the respective construction products should be equally considered as part of the entire life cycle.