Horizontal measurement

Contaminants and the decline of organic matter are threats to soils, hence the importance of protecting soils and defining accurate methods for measurement of these threats. Though the effort to introduce a global soil protection legislation at EU level has not succeded yet, several standardisation processes already occur in this field. They can relate to pollutants measurement, characterisation of biowaste and sludges from industrial processes, definition and use of soils improvers.

As many standardisation activities are carried out regarding analysis and characterisation of materials linked with soils (sludge, biowaste, etc.), a CEN Task Force was established to avoid unnecessary duplication of work. The creation of CEN/ BT Task Force 151 "development of horizontal standards in the fields of sludge, biowaste and soil" was also triggered by a mandate from the European Commission to CEN in May 2003. The European Commission particularly insisted on getting horizontal standards to implement future EU environmental policy and measure contaminants in sludge, biowaste and soils in Europe (heavy metals, chlorinated compounds, hydrocarbons, biphenyls, phthalates, etc.).

The Commission financially supported the formation of a "horizontal" Consortium of research institutes, experts in standardisation, members of the academic world and regulatory agencies. The objective of the Consortium is to carry out pre-normative research and develop draft texts in the form of draft European standards for the parameters concerned. CEN/TC 308/WG 1 has also participated in drafting methods for the hygienic parameters likely to be included in future EU Directives.

ECOS has been sending an expert to the Task Force 151 since 2003. This expert has also been involved in vertical technical committtees, and has strongly advocated for more consistency and pragmatism in the work carried out.

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