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Last changed: 31/07/2009
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Division IV is concerned with chemical safety and so with the protection of human health and environment against hazardous chemicals. Division IV investigates and assesses environmental risks of substances and preparations. If risks exist, we develop measures to reduce these risks. This can impose a ban on manufacture or use of chemicals.
The legal framework is a series of acts and ordinances relating to chemical substances which we seek to implement and continue to develop:
Regulations on chemical safety are largely prescribed by European Union legislation. Assessment methods are widely harmonized throughout Europe. The assessment results and management decisions have to be discussed, implemented and enforced at European level.
We bring our experience and expertise to bear in European expert groups. This has included designing the EC Biocides Directive, developing guidelines to the environmental assessment of medicinal products, the EC Detergents Regulation, and last but not least, the new European chemicals regulation REACH.
Division IV is the authority charged with the enforcement of the Biocides Act, the Plant Protection Act, the Medicinal Products Act, and the Protection against Infection Act. This means that any authorization is subject to UBA approval. In this respect we cooperate with other federal authorities, in particular the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL), and the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM).
Plant protection products are subject to authorization prior to use by farmers. Since they are released directly into the environment and contain ingredients that are toxic for certain pest organisms, especially close scrutiny as to whether they are compatible with the natural environment and harmless to groundwater is necessary.
Biocides, which are products used to kill pest organisms in the non-agricultural field, may only be used after authorization. The authorization requires a sound environmental audit. Biocides are necessary to combat organisms that might be carriers of disease or serve the protection of materials.
It is an important municipal hygiene task to have enough effective products and procedures on hand to prevent the spread of disease brought by pests such as cockroaches or ticks. We carry out experimental tests on the efficacy of pest control resources and procedures according to the Protection against Infection Act, whereby we ensure that there are no unacceptable effects on the environment.
Washing and cleansing agents are subject to special legislation since they are used in great amounts and can potentially enter the hydrologic cycle. They must therefore meet especially high requirements in terms of degradability.
Substances hazardous to waters must be handled at technical facilities so as not to jeopardize waters. We categorize chemical substances according to their degree of hazard in classes.
Doing the work required to implement various substance-related laws requires the use of extensive professional databases, which must also be maintained and continuously developed.
In addition, we are involved at the international level in designing chemical safety regulations and measures. This particularly concerns persistent organic pollutants (POPs) whose manufacture and use are either banned or extremely restricted by international treaties. We work in close cooperation with international organizations, especially the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) plays a leading role in matters of international chemical safety, as they are responsible, amongst others, for questions on the safety of nanomaterials and for harmonizing chemical testing guidelines.
Division IV is also charged with the continued development of the scientific knowledge necessary to assess the ecotoxicological impact, biodegradability, and accumulation of chemicals in organisms and the food chain as well as environmental exposure. Work is also carried out to investigate questions about special modes of action such as hormonal effects. We are involved in developing and improving suitable testing methods to assess environmental risks, in part by carrying out our own experiments. We also focus on the assessment of nanoparticles in various applications.
The division oversees the Joint Substance Data Pool Federation/Länder (GSBL). GSBL now has more than 150,000 data entries that can be researched and queried. The feature for quick information on hazardous substances (GSA) is much used by first responders and end users.
One important instrument used to document the success of measures to reduce discharges of polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and furans is the Dioxin database of the Federal Administration and Länder governments. Detected contaminations of environmental samples, biota, feeding stuff and food with dioxins and furans are documented, evaluated and proposals for measures are developed to further reduce contaminations.
The artificial stream and pond system (FSA) at the Federal Environment Agency’s field station in Berlin-Marienfelde is a large, new and technically sophisticated test plant. It allows the simulation of flowing, stagnant and flow-through aquatic systems – from streams and rivers, ponds and lakes, to river-like lakes, as well as the aquatic ecosystems they house. The FSA belongs to the large model ecosystems (mesocosm), acting as an intermediary between simplified and easily controlled laboratory experiments and field studies. The FSA is associated with a large chemical analysis laboratory as well as a GLP certified laboratory for ecotoxicological testing in which certain measurement programmes (e.g. for medicinal products in the environment) are carried out and analytical procedures for environmental chemicals are developed.