Biocidal active substances in households – reasons for the need to promote a sustainable use of biocides

Households are a possible application site for a wide variety of biocidal active substances that fall under the Biocidal Products Regulation (EU) 528/2012 (BPR). However, the usage pattern of these substances there is widely unknown. Furthermore, the very same substances are used in products that are regulated by other regulations, too. As exposures resulting from different regulatory areas are currently not aggregated, the risks of these active substances will be underestimated. The objectives of the work presented here are therefore (i) to identify the biocidal active substances that can be found in households and the respective product categories they are used in and (ii) to describe the cases where biocidal active substances might enter the sewage system without being covered by the BPR and thus are not evaluated under its risk assessment scheme.
Face-to-face interviews were conducted in 133 households in predominantly urban, intermediate and predominantly rural study sites in Germany. Members of private households were interviewed using a standardised questionnaire. Additionally, the products that were used in the households were registered with the help of a barcode scanner.
Biocidal active substances were present in all households, eventhough not all posessed biocidal products, as the majority of uses of biocidal active substances was in washing and cleaning agents and personal care products, but not in biocidal products. Around 60 % of the registered applications of biocidal active substances do not fall under the risk assessment of the BPR. These can be active substances present in washing and cleaning agents, which are not assessed or approved for the use as in-can-preservatives. Furthermore, all biocidal active substances present in personal care products are not covered by the risk assessment of the BPR.
The results show that gaps exist in the risk assessment of biocidal active substances. The attempt to solve the problem would require an extensive increase of complexity of risk assessments and their aggregation throughout all legislation. From our point of view, a better approach to reduce possible risks by these substances in general would be to limit their use to in fact essential usages. A sustainable use of biocides should thus be promoted to account for existing gaps in risk assessment.