Legal Problems of Assessing and Regulating Exposure to Combined Effects of Substances and Radiation

Art. 20a of the German Basic Law (GG) assigns responsibility to the state for protection and conservation of natural resources, in the interests both of current generations and of those to follow. Furthermore, judgements handed down by Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court find that the basic right to protection of physical integrity and health (Art. 2(2) sentence 1 GG) makes the state responsible for the protection of life and human health. 1 The protection against dangers and risks to health and the environment provided for under these stipulations has general application. Thus, it covers not only dangers and risks that arise from exposures to individual substances, but also those caused by exposure to the combined effects of multiple substances or of substances and radiation. The Federal Administrative Court made this clear in a later judgement relating to protection from noise pollution. 2 The decision involved the question of whether the segmented assessment method prescribed by the Traffic Noise Abatement Regulation (16th BImSchV), which takes as the starting point for noise abatement only the noise assessed for a new road without taking the prior burden of existing noise into account, is compatible with the authorization to issue regulations under the Pollution Control Act (Art. 43 BImSchG). The Federal Administrative Court judged in favour, but also stated that isolated assessment of differing noise segments reaches its limitations in the constitutional duties of protection under Art.