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Occupational Safety, Environmental und Health Protection
Studenten im Sommer auf dem Campus Nord, rote Zahnräder im Hintergrund © Roland Baege​/​TU Dortmund

Chemical engineering building complex

Plasters and fillers containing asbestos

Please note the information on plasters and fillers containing asbestos under Asbestos.

PCB contamination

Since summer 2012, the BLB NRW has carried out numerous, mainly structural, measures in the building complex to remove the building materials containing PCBs.

In addition to the structural measures, indoor air measurements for PCBs are continuously carried out by the building owner, particularly in storey buildings 1-3. In some rooms in all three storey buildings, indoor air concentrations are above the precautionary value of the NRW PCB guideline.

Further material sampling and indoor air measurements are carried out by the building owner by two commissioned expert offices.

The results are published in the service portal.

What preventive measures can individual employees take?

  1. Regular ventilation of the rooms effectively reduces the indoor air concentration of all gaseous substances. The best way to ventilate is to open the entire window sash for 5 minutes every hour. Windows that are tilted all the time are less effective.
  2. Regular cleaning helps to reduce pollution. For this reason, additional professional special cleaning is carried out in the more heavily polluted areas.
  3. Pregnant and breastfeeding employees can find more information in the next section. You can contact our company medical service or the Occupational Health and Safety and Environmental Protection department for advice on whether temporary implementation may be necessary.

Effects of indoor air pollution with PCBs for pregnant women

In view of the food-related basic exposure, the remediation guideline values specified in the NRW PCB guideline apply as an assessment standard for indoor air pollution. Based on the fundamental consideration that pregnant women should not be exposed to fruit-damaging or carcinogenic substances, but that these occur everywhere, exposure to such substances in the workplace should be limited to the general background exposure. A possible PCB exposure of pregnant women resulting from structural components of the room must therefore be assessed on the basis of the NRW PCB guideline.

Indoor air concentrations below 300 ng PCB/m3 air are considered tolerable in the long term.

Due to the special protection obligations under the Maternity Protection Act, rooms that exceed the precautionary value of 300 ng/m3 in the NRW PCB Guideline should not be used as workrooms by expectant and nursing mothers. Therefore, please inform your superiors about your pregnancy. TU Dortmund University will provide alternative rooms.