Construction products which require building inspectorate approval are subject to the Guideline “Assessment of the effects of construction products on soil and ground water” issued by the German Institute for Building Technology (DIBt) in Germany. This guideline describes the general way of proceeding in evaluating the environmental compatibility of construction products. Corresponding DIBt task forces have laid down the specific requirements in the product-specific Part II. Part II for concrete and concrete constituents has been largely completed, but not published yet. For water-impermeable concrete construction, the draft provides for a 56-day long-term tank leaching test to be performed on 10 x 10 x 10 cm3 concrete cubes.

The limit values applied to trace element concentration are the so-called no effect levels, which correspond to the test values specified in the Federal Soil Protection and Hazardous Waste Site Ordinance. These values are, however, not compared with the results of the long-term tank leaching test directly. They rather serve to calculate the permissible release from the building material on the basis of a diffusion model, and the simulation of dispersion of the substance in the ground water by means of a geological flow and transport model. According to the current draft of Part II, the environmental impact that occurs above a 30 cm water level XR (see Figure) over a period of 6 months is decisive for evaluation.

In Germany, evaluation of environmental compatibility only extends to new construction products that require building inspectorate approval. At European level, by contrast, also standardised construction products are to undergo this procedure. This requirement is included in the European Construction Products Directive, which not only lays down the traditional establishment of structural suitability, but explicitly stipulates that the structures made from construction products comply with the hygiene, health and environmental protection requirements in place at their site of use. To that end, the European Commission adopted a mandate for a horizontal, standardised assessment method for dangerous substances under the construction products directive at the end of 2004. This mandate describes the external framework for the course of action planned. In contrast to the EAS, in which the test methods and requirements are to be harmonised, only the test methods are intended to be harmonised, while the individual EU member countries continue to be responsible for the corresponding requirements.