Home poison

Home poison is a catchphrase that is used to describe substances that occur in inhabited rooms and that impair or damage the health or well-being of the people living or staying in them.

Sources of toxins in the home can not only be the outside air and the building surface, but inside a building also building materials, furnishings and pollutants brought in by the residents and their activities .

Pollutants known as "home poisons" include:

Fine dust ,
Gases ( ozone , carbon monoxide , benzene vapors),
Mold spores and pollen ,
Formaldehyde vapors
Asbestos fibers

Residential poisons can, for example, be divided into volatile pollutants (VOCs) and non-volatile pollutants according to their vapor pressure or volatility .

Highly volatile pollutants (VOCs)

Solvents such as benzene, toluene, styrene, alcohol, esters, ethers, glycols or terpenes are primarily to be mentioned as slightly to medium-volatile substances. They emit gases in the apartment from plastics, carpets, paint, furniture, wallpaper, adhesives and other materials. These volatile pollutants are distributed in gaseous form in the room air. You can only partially move them outside through intensive ventilation. Some solvents, on the other hand, can still outgas heavily after months or even years and can be detected in the breath in critical concentrations. They then often lead to respiratory and mucous membrane irritation in the residents.

Semi-volatile pollutants

Semi-volatile pollutants have a boiling point between 240 and 400 ° C. First and foremost are the various pesticides that have been used as wood preservatives in the form of PCP , lindane or dichlofluanid , for example . Older prefabricated houses in particular are often contaminated with such wood preservatives. But leather goods, furniture or carpets are still often equipped with insecticides such as permethrin to prevent infestation by moths or carpet beetles .

Furthermore, very high concentrations of plasticizers or flame retardants can be found in many apartments . They can escape, for example, from plastic products, mattresses or foams (vinyl wallpaper, PVC floor coverings, vinyl floors, foams, assembly foam, housings of electrical appliances, etc.).

PCBs can still be partially detected in buildings built up to around the end of the 1970s. At that time it was often used as a plasticizer in plastics and as a flame retardant.

You can find PCB e.g. B. in

Permanently elastic joint sealing compounds for building separation joints, movement joints between precast concrete elements or connection joints in windows and doors
old PVC flooring, rubber, polyurethane foam
old fire protection coatings,
old adhesives
Formwork oil previously used in concrete work
old cable sheathing

Semi-volatile pollutants mix poorly or not at all with the air. They therefore only release gas very slowly and over a long period of time. Above all, their accumulation in house dust or secondary contamination of other furnishings in the house is critical. Therefore, in addition to inhaling the gaseous components, the inhalation of contaminated fine dusts should be emphasized. Skin contact, mucous membrane contact or ingestion of these contaminated dusts can lead to health problems for the residents.

Detection procedure for home poisons

Depending on which pollutants are suspected to be in the home, different analysis and investigation methods must be selected for home toxins. It is therefore advisable to inspect the site or talk to an expert with the residents before such an examination.

In newly renovated apartments or in new buildings, an examination for volatile pollutants (solvents, aldehydes) can be useful. The room air is drawn onto special test tubes with pumps. These test tubes are then analyzed in the laboratory for a predetermined number of pollutants that can usually occur in living spaces (indoor air screening).

Semi-volatile pollutants (wood preservatives, PCP, PCB) are mainly found in old buildings. You can determine it in the context of a house dust screening.

House dust, which is around 7-10 days old, is sucked up from the floor using a bagless vacuum cleaner and then examined in the laboratory.

Following such a laboratory test, this result must be professionally assessed in connection with the local conditions in order to find possible sources of pollution.

politics

In the late 1990s in Switzerland the old Drugs Act with a new one, with the EU chemicals legislation harmonized Chemicals Act should be replaced (Chemicals Act), which has Bundesrat with the so-called "Wohngift article" (Art. 20 indoor pollutants) The draft law created a legal basis for indoor pollutants that was not adopted in this form by parliament after extensive discussion. It was argued that Switzerland would go further than the EU and that this draft article would mean overregulation, even an encroachment on privacy.

Both the EU and Germany have a hard time with legal requirements that affect living space. The legislators expressly see living space as a protected private sphere , in which regulations could violate fundamental rights. Just as one does not want a smoking ban in private apartments, politicians do not want limit values for other pollutants in these either.

Web links

Federal Office of Public Health : Home poisons

Individual evidence

↑ Baden-Württemberg trade supervisory authority: Guideline for the assessment and remediation of pentachlorophenol (PCP) -contaminated building materials and components in buildings (PCP guideline). Retrieved March 4, 2020 .
^ Working group of ecological research institutes eV: Pollutant measurements. Retrieved March 4, 2020 .
↑ Swiss Federal Council: Draft federal law on protection against dangerous substances and preparations (Chemicals Act, ChemG) . tape 840 , Art. 20 Indoor Pollutants, 1999.
↑ P. Bachmann, M. Lange (Ed.): Build healthily with safety: facts, arguments and strategies for healthy building, modernization and living . 2nd Edition. 3.2 Positions of the authorities in Switzerland. Springer Vieweg, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8348-2523-0 .
↑ P. Bachmann, M. Lange (Ed.): Build healthily with safety: facts, arguments and strategies for healthy building, modernization and living . 2nd Edition. 3.1 Positions of the authorities in Germany. Springer Vieweg, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8348-2523-0 .

[1] Baden-Württemberg trade supervisory authority: Guideline for the assessment and remediation of pentachlorophenol (PCP) -contaminated building materials and components in buildings (PCP guideline). Retrieved March 4, 2020 .

[2] Working group of ecological research institutes eV: Pollutant measurements. Retrieved March 4, 2020 .

[3] Swiss Federal Council: Draft federal law on protection against dangerous substances and preparations (Chemicals Act, ChemG) . tape 840 , Art. 20 Indoor Pollutants, 1999.

[4] P. Bachmann, M. Lange (Ed.): Build healthily with safety: facts, arguments and strategies for healthy building, modernization and living . 2nd Edition. 3.2 Positions of the authorities in Switzerland. Springer Vieweg, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8348-2523-0 .

[5] P. Bachmann, M. Lange (Ed.): Build healthily with safety: facts, arguments and strategies for healthy building, modernization and living . 2nd Edition. 3.1 Positions of the authorities in Germany. Springer Vieweg, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8348-2523-0 .