How to meet European Regulations?

European Regulation on Biocides (BPD, DSD, DPD)

Since the 1960s, the placing on the market of chemicals in the EU has been regulated by 2 main pieces of legislation:

the Dangerous Substances Directive (and its daughter directive the Dangerous Preparations Directive ) which lays down the rules for the classification, labeling and packaging of chemicals substances
the Marketing and Use Directive which establishes a list of chemical substances associated with specific use restrictions.

Today, the increased awareness of the potential toxic hazard of chemicals, and the evolution of the European legislations towards very high standards of human, and environment protection, conducted to the implementation of more restrictive regulations for the control of chemicals. For biocidal products, this resulted in the publication, in 1998, of the Biocidal Product Directive which lays down the new rules for the placing on the market of biocidal products and for the review of the biocidal active substances.

To learn more about the application of the directives' restriction applied to your specific country, visit our section:

How are European regulations implemented in my country?

Although the new European regulations have changed the industry standard for active agents, the ability of fungal and algal to grow on both exterior and interior coatings makes the use of biocidal additives necessary. Several biocide active agents exist but only a small number of them respond totally to European regulations, industry needs, environmental and consumer demands.

Such demands represent a significant challenge for biocides manufacturers but it is possible to meet these requirements in terms of performance and safety.