Laws, Regulations, Standards for Organic Cleaners

A continuous udate of the offered links cannot be guaranteed. Please refer to the hints at the respective websites.

All Euopean legislation can be found in the "EUR-Lex" database. It is possible to search for specific directives, to follow the analytical structure or to check the alphabetical index. Most documents are also available as consolidated versions, i.e. later amendments, corrections etc. are incorporated into one although non-official document.

Laws, Regulations

VOC-Directive (consolidated version)
Council Directive 1999/13/EC of 11 March 1999 on the limitation of emissions of volatile organic compounds due to the use of organic solvents in certain activities and installations
Explosive atmospheres
Directive 94/9/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 23 March 1994 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres
Protection of workers against explosive atmospheres
Directive 1999/92/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 1999 on minimum requirements for improving the safety and health protection of workers potentially at risk from explosive atmospheres (15th individual Directive within Directive 89/391/EEC)

Chlorofluorocarbons Council Decision
82/795/EEC: Council Decision of 15 November 1982 on the consolidation of precautionary measures concerning chlorofluorocarbons in the environment
Fluorinated Gases
New rules on F-gases adopted as bill goes through EU Parliament (April 2004)

TA Luft
German: Verwaltungsvorschriften Technische Anleitung zur Reinhaltung der Luft
Lagerung brennbarer "A III" Flüssigkeiten
German: Informationsblatt zu brennbaren Flüssigkeiten mit Flammpunkt > 55°C vom Landesinstitut für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin, Freistaat Sachsen

VOC-Tool
PIUS Download-offer of an Excel programme for the establishment of solvent balance sheets and reduction plans according to the German 31. BImSchV (we plan together with PIUS to offer a similar tool also for other countries)

HSE, UK

HSE information sheet (pdf)
Engineering sheet No. 21 "Immersion and cold cleaning of engineering components"
HSE information sheet (pdf)
Engineering sheet No. 34 "Surface cleaning: Solvent update including the reclassification of trichloroethylene" (trike)

Regulations, Rules from German Berufsgenossenschaften

The links from the German statutory accident insurance (Berufsgenossenschaft) lead to a database-search interface. Enter the required identification or title. You can then view or download the document in pdf-format. In some cases the information may be available in English.

BGI 767
Chlorkohlenwasserstoffe (bisher ZH 1/194)
BGI 621
Merkblatt: Lösemittel (bisher ZH 1/319)
BGI 880
Kaltreiniger-Merkblatt (bisher ZH 1/425)

BGR 180

Richtlinien für Einrichtungen zum Reinigen von Werkstücken mit Lösemitteln (bisher ZH 1/562)
BGI 560
Arbeitssicherheit durch vorbeugenden Brandschutz - 2006

Updted by Klaus Kuhl, 19.7.2006