Restrictions on Europe's cultural heritage institutions overcome by EU biocide regulation - SPK achieves national re-legalisation of in-situ-generated nitrogen to combat pest infestations
Press release from 08/24/2023
Insects threaten precious cultural assets worldwide. Since the publication of "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson in 1962, which documented the detrimental effects of pesticide use on the environment, more sustainable pest control technologies have been researched and developed. In recent decades, more and more museums and other cultural heritage institutions have turned away from potentially dangerous chemical control and towards integrated pest management (IPM).
One pillar of this is the use of a controlled, anoxic atmosphere with a very low oxygen content in a chamber or tent with the aim of eliminating insect infestation on movable or immovable objects of cultural heritage at all stages of their development. Nitrogen is the most commonly used gas. To this end, many institutions - over 30 in Germany alone - have invested in their own nitrogen systems for treating objects.
There is no equivalent alternative in terms of both conservation and human health, both for staff and visitors to cultural heritage institutions.
However, the use of nitrogen generated in situ, i.e. extracted on site from the ambient air, has been restricted by the European Union's Biocidal Products Regulation 528/2012 of 22 May 2012. Its use has not been permitted as an active substance or product since 2017.
In a complex procedure, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK), on behalf of the cultural heritage institutions in Germany, was able to submit an application for approval to the Federal Agency for Chemicals of the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) on 5 April 2022, which was approved by general ruling in August 2023 with the help of financial support from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) and under the leadership of the Rathgen Research Laboratory of the National Museums in Berlin.
This means that in-situ-generated nitrogen can now be used again in pest control in Germany and nitrogen chambers can be legally operated again in crop protection. On the basis of the general ruling, all other EU states can now obtain national and simplified authorisation via a mutual recognition procedure.
Stefan Simon, Director of the Rathgen Research Laboratory: "The BAuA's general ruling of 10 August 2023 ends a Kafkaesque situation for our cultural heritage institutions, which began in 2009 with the classification of nitrogen, which makes up around 78% of our ambient air, as an active substance for biocidal products of type 18 (insecticides) by the European Union. The BAuA's current general ruling is an important step in the right direction. The common goal must remain the correction of this European regulation, which contradicts sustainability."
Vice President Gero Dimter emphasises: "With the national re-legalisation of in-situ-generated nitrogen to combat pest infestation, the SPK, as Germany's largest cultural institution, is also making a contribution to the sustainable protection of cultural assets for other cultural institutions in Germany and beyond. I would like to thank the Rathgen Research Laboratory and its director for their commitment and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media for their great support."
A joint appeal by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) in December 2019 to take part in a public consultation with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) for a derogation in cultural heritage protection had a strong impact with 1,487 comments submitted:
https://echa.europa.eu/derogations-for-the-protection-of-cultural-heritage
Questions can be directed to the Rathgen Research Laboratory: rf@smb.spk-berlin.de
Press images for download: https://www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de/newsroom/presse/pressebilder.html