There are about 200 dangerous substances (including radioactivity, considered here as a ‘substance’) relevant for construction products and subject to regulatory requirements in the EU. Some are regulated at EU level, while others are regulated at Member State level. Some substances are regulated in terms of their content (they are banned or their content is limited), others in terms of release from the product or the effect of release on, for example, indoor air or water quality.
The Construction Products Regulation (CPR) covers dangerous substances from the point of view of their potential emission into indoor air or their leaching into water, and the emission of radioactivity. There are, however, other regulatory requirements on dangerous substances which construction product manufacturers have to satisfy, some of these based on content rather than release. This Position Paper therefore covers all regulatory requirements, not only those of the CPR.