Inventory of biocides used in Denmark
2. Methodology
According to the Biocide Directive biocidal products are defined as:
'Active substances and preparations containing one or more active substances, put up in the form in which they are supplied to the user, intended to destroy, deter, render harmless, prevent the action of, or otherwise exert a controlling effect on any harmful organism by chemical or biological means.'
For the transparency of the present assessment it is, however, expedient to distinguish between the active substances and preparations and products containing these substances.
The following terms will be used:
 | Biocides: The active substances (or active agents) with a biocidal effect. The biocides are specific chemical compounds. |
| Biocidal chemicals: Biocide-containing chemicals used for production of biocidal products. In many instances, the biocidal chemical only consists of the biocide. |
| Biocidal products: Manufactured products with an explicit biocidal function. |
| Other products containing biocides: Manufactured products without an explicit biocidal function to which biocides are added for protection of the product itself. |
There are a number of substances whose major use is non-biocidal, but which has some minor use as a biocide. These substances are in the Biocide Directive designated 'Basic substances'. In the assessment in the present report, only the consumption of these substances as a biocide is included.
The flow of biocides from production of biocidal chemicals to consumption of finished goods is illustrated in Figure 2.1.
The flow of the biocides subsequent to the use of the products and the possible exposure of man and the environment will be discussed more within Phase 2 of this project.
The emphasis of the assessment is on the use-phase and the consumption of biocides with finished biocidal products and other products containing biocides. The consumption of biocides for a specific application indicated in the tables in the following sections thus represents the total content of the biocides in finished goods sold on the Danish market in 1998, if nothing else is explicitly indicated.
Figures for the volume of biocidal chemicals used for production of finished goods in Denmark are not represented in the report, except for wood-preservatives, for which the consumption for production in Denmark is registered in the Pesticide Statistics.
Figure 2.1
Initial part of the flow of the biocides through the society
The consumption volumes for the biocides are estimated on the basis of information from the Danish Product Register Database PROBAS, the Danish Pesticide Statistics, Statistics Denmark, the Danish EPA, trade organisations, consumers, and companies producing or trading the products.
Initially a retrieval of biocidal substances registered in PROBAS, the database of the Danish Productregister was carried out. The retrieval was based on the 'List of biocidal substances' of July 1999 from the European Chemical Bureau. The list comprised 1,336 substances with CAS No. Of these, 607 substances were registered in PROBAS as used in Denmark.
For these substances, a more extensive retrieval of turnover by application areas was carried out. The application areas registered in PROBAS are, however, not identical with the application areas defined in this work, and the data from PROBAS are not immediately applicable. In addition, only a part of the biocidal products is registered. Companies only have the obligation to submit information on the turnover of products to PROBAS if the products contain substances classified dangerous (Bek 540). If the products contain dangerous substances, however, all constituents of the products are registered.
As all products are not registered, the data from PROBAS cannot be used directly to estimate the consumption of the biocidal products in Denmark, but the information from the database has been used in combination with information received from the relevant branches of trade. Producers and importers have to submit information on the expected turnover of the products and any changes in this respect. By experience, the turnover volumes are often not updated frequently, and the registered turnover may be quite far from the actual volumes.
The data from PROBAS have been most useful as regards applications within Main Group 2: ‘Preservatives’ and product-type 21: ‘Antifouling products’. For antifouling products, the registering in PROBAS was updated and quality assessed, and turnover volumes have been applied directly in this study.
A total of 144 different compounds are registered in PROBAS as used as preservatives in various products. The PROBAS data supplement the information obtained from the industry, as the information from the industry for most application areas focus on the compounds typically used. The information in PROBAS regarding the specific use of the substances is considered confidential, if the number of registered products and registered users is below three. The detailed lists of preservatives used for different application areas are consequently only included in a confidential unpublished version of this report.
Until now the biocides included in the product-types 8, 10 (partly), 12 (partly), 14, 18, 19 (partly) and 23 have been covered by the Danish Statutory Order No. 241 of 27 April 1998 on Pesticides (Bek 241). According to the regulation only pesticides approved by the Danish EPA are allowed in Denmark, and information about the content of active agents of the approved pesticides is included in 'Survey of approved pesticides' published by the Danish EPA (Danish EPA. 1999 A). The total sale of the pesticides and active agents are registered by the Danish EPA and reported annually in the 'Pesticide Statistics' (Danish EPA. 1999 B). In the tables in this report, the number of approved products for each application area is indicated, but the turnover of some of the approved products on the Danish marked for the year of reference may actually be zero.
The total consumption of biocides for these application areas is estimated on the basis of the Pesticide Statistics. In these instances when the active agents are used for more than one application area, the distribution of the registered biocides on product-types and sub-types is based on information retrieved from the pesticide register of the Danish EPA. In one instance, wood preservatives, the biocidal products are used for production of products containing biocides, and both the Danish consumption of biocidal products for manufacturing of products and the consumption with finished goods are assessed.
For application areas where the biocides are not covered by the Pesticide Statistics, the total consumption of the biocides are predominantly estimated on the basis of information from consumers, trade organisations and companies producing or trading the finished goods. As mentioned above, this information is combined with information retrieved from PROBAS.
For most of the biocides, it is not possible to assess the exact sale of the biocide with finished goods in 1998. The consumption figures will consequently be represented by ranges based on more or less uncertain 'expert judgements'. The basis for the judgements is indicated in the text or notes to the tables. In order to limit the extent of the ranges , the indicated ranges represent a 80% certainty level or in other words: The figures are represented by the range, within which the authors estimate the 'true value' with a 80% certainty can be found. In this way, there is a direct correlation between the uncertainty of the estimates and the width of the ranges. It should be noted that the ‘true value’ of about 20% of the estimates accordingly could be outside the indicated range.
The content of active agents in the products is represented as (weight/weight), if nothing else is indicated.