Dangerous substances

The number of dangerous substances in construction materials tend to increase and affect the indoor air quality and people's health.

In 2005 a CEN/BT Working Group 176 "Assessment of Release of Dangerous Substances by Construction Products" was established following recommandations from the "Construction Sector Network Project Group on Environment" (CSNPE). CEN/BT WG 176 goal was to pave the way for standardisation of methods related to dangerous substances in construction products. However, the WG 176 work programme had been prepared without knowing the full list of substances to which its work would apply.

Then under the "Construction Products Directive" (CPD) a mandate was issued in 2005 by the European Commission to CEN in order to draft standards on the topic. The CEN Technical Committee 351 "Assessment of release of dangerous substances under the Construction Products Directive" was established and will prepare horizontal standardized methods to assess the health and environmental effects of potential dangerous substances emitted into indoor air, soil, surface water and ground water.

ECOS has been sending experts to these group and committee since 2005 and advised to broaden the scope of their work in order to embrace all possible construction related toxic substances. This approach would be in line with the European REACH legilsation on toxics substances which will cover a high number of regulated substances. ECOS also believes it is vital that a proper scoping of potentially relevant substances is carried out in order to avoid narrowing down the new standard only to dangerous substances already known and used in construction today.

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