Integrierter Schutz vor gefährlichen Stoffen

Many environmental problems occurring in modern industrial society are caused by hazardous substances, in particular organic chemicals and heavy metals. They pollute the environmental media water, air and soil, change their material composition and can cause changes in the functioning of the human body and of ecosystems through their absorption. The causes for the arising environmental problems lie, on the one hand, in knowledge gaps regarding hazardous substances, their properties and effects, but on the other hand, also in legal deficiencies, such as ineffective regulatory concepts and incoherences between different regulatory areas. To this end, this work analyses whether and how the REACH Regulation affects sectoral environmental law – in the form of water and immission control legislation - and to what extent these regulatory areas ensure coherent and effective protection of man and the environment against hazardous substances.