Product transparency: knowing what’s inside

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Checking the ingredients ...

We reveal all ingredients down to the last crumb. But we are almost an absolute exception among the manufacturers in the market. We have the composition checked and assessed at the Institute for Quality Management and Environmental Hygiene in Weikersheim.

This means that comprehensive information is available to consumers and specialist companies Available, on whose basis is a conscious decision for or against ours Products met can be.

We are also consumers

How do we feel as consumers if we don’t get any information about the ingredients in building materials, adhesives, paints, paints, mortars and plaster?

How do we feel when eco-labels are supposed to suggest that the products are harmless, but that we are looking for information about the Ingredients none Find information?

How does it feel when there are 2-3 substances listed on buckets, sacks and packaging l According to the manufacturer, the product should not be included (“free from”), but the actual ingredients input completely missing on the packaging?

Healthy living has a lot to do with information about the nature and composition of the materials that are to be used. If we value the best indoor air quality and sustainability, we should know what exactly will be installed and brought in before buying or placing an order.

Whether for building, renovating, modernizing or refurbishing, building materials are always used. Conventional building materials are usually products that contain chemicals or consist mainly of chemicals.

Shouldn’t we have a statutory right to information about which individual substances the materials are made up of?

At Kalkkind, we see it as urgently necessary that the industry must be legally obliged to disclose all ingredients.

Practical use is crucial

Labels, with which building materials and materials are awarded, biet no equivalent substitute. These can be helpful and supportive in the purchase decision. but they in no way replace the full declaration. The labels are usually based on emission measurements under laboratory conditions with a constant air exchange rate and room conditions that have nothing to do with the conditions in actual practical use.

Without a 100% full declaration for a building material, we as consumers cannot really make conscious, comprehensive and informed decisions for or against the product.
We always need to have to trust. Trust that there are no ingredients in it that “outgas” after installation and thus significantly pollute the air in the room, i.e. the air we breathe.

If a simple emulsion paint or a sack of plaster often consists of several dozen chemicals, the consumer must have a right to know what he is bringing into his four walls. We are absolutely convinced of that!

We stand for the full declaration

It is all the more important for people who suffer from allergies or other environmental diseases that they pay close attention to what they get into their four walls.

Also, more and more consumers attach importance to a healthy one Indoor climate because they want to stay healthy.

KalkKind has a clear opinion on this, which we stand by and act accordingly.

Every consumer must be entitled to a comprehensive and complete full declaration of building materials on the container packaging.
All ingredients must be listed in full with the respective CAS registration number.
The origin of the substances, whether of mineral, fossil or renewable origin, must be indicated.

For more than 25 years we have been campaigning for a complete product declaration for all building materials and construction products. We focus on this topic in all workshops, lectures, seminars and trade fair appearances.

It is not enough for a few manufacturers to properly disclose the ingredients of their products. While the entire conventional building materials industry is shrouded in silence to the consumer with regard to the composition of their standard products, in order to then sell their sham packaging as “healthy living” with individual labels.

Building materials, paints, wall structures, insulation materials, adhesives, floor coverings, etc. are the basis for habitable interiors.

Almost all of them are users and consumers here. It therefore affects the whole of the population.

The processing tradespeople in the entire construction industry are particularly affected. They work with the chemical preparations every day without knowing what substances they are exposed to. On top of that, they should meet the requirements of the Guidelines for indoor air hygiene (Federal Environment Agency UBA) in the execution of their services. All of this without sufficient information about the materials they offer, install and process.

CAS registration number for chemical substances

Only the complete disclosure of the constituents of building materials enables the life cycle assessment of the products. Information about the origin of the individual substances such as mineral, vegetable, fossil is necessary for this.

In the list of all ingredients, the respective one is given for each individual substance CAS registration number to specify ( CAS = Chemical Abstracts Service is an international designation standard for chemical substances). A number is assigned to each chemical substance registered in the CAS database. This allows chemicals to be unmistakably identified and researched. Today around 150,000,000 (one hundred and fifty million) substances are already registered worldwide. More than 10,000 new substances are registered every day.

The full declaration is an important factor in assessing action in several areas:

• Consumer protection
• Environmental Protection
• Health protection
• Osh

Trust is good - but control is better here!

In order not to run the risk that we as the manufacturer may Risk potential overlooked or played down in the raw materials used, we let the R oh fabrics controlled by an independent, neutral institute.

In the case of external inspections, the task is not to assess and check the technical properties.

The main focus is placed on the health assessment of the components.

The selection of our raw materials is made with the greatest care and a sense of responsibility. Yet lwe ate in a holistic way Check through die objective Evaluation of our Raw materials on the basis of scientific Carry out methods. the The effects of individual substances, mixtures of substances and preparations affect complex processes. Are various building materials, components and Auxiliary materials Installed in the interior, these react differently to one another. Their emission behavior can cause complicated processes such as hydrolysis, chemolysis and thermolysis processes.

The assessment and assessment of the possible risk potential is a complicated task for which scientific expertise and special knowledge in the field of environmental hygiene, the environment and human toxicology are necessary.

That is with the control, testing and evaluation of our product composition Institute for Quality Management and Environmental Hygiene (IQUH) commissioned in Weikersheim.

IQUH - The testing institute for environmental hygiene

The team of experts develops quality management procedures for building and product evaluations. The product tests are part of an integrated operational management process and are based on national and international standards such as CEN, ISO, DIN, REACh etc.

The IQUH tested and certified products are legally compliant products.

At the IQUH, the legal framework is not the only yardstick for evaluating products and buildings. Because the top priority for the activities of the institute is:

• The human being is at the center of the built environment.
• The aim is to create decent housing and settlements – healthy and natural.

IQUH and its team of experts provide important foundations for research, development and Knowledge transfer in many areas of healthy living .

Be sure - with the tested premium quality

We meet the requirements for sustainable and comfortable interiors, as required by critical and ecologically-minded builders.

The mode of action of our natural lime products helps many chronically ill, allergy sufferers and those with environmental damage. This eliminates possible causes for the diseases. In addition, indoor air hygiene is created, which relieves the organs.

The QUH factor (quality, environmental and human compatibility factor) is based on complete information on ingredients.

It is determined using the following test parameters:

– Product transparency
– Origin of raw materials,
– Emission estimation
– Hazardous material classification
– Acid binding capacity
– Humidity compensation

The QUH factor (QF) describes the quality as well as the environmental and human compatibility of a product.
A consumer-friendly, quickly ascertainable evaluation of the raw material test and product recommendation is represented by the QUH factor.

The number factor QF 1 to 5 estimates how safe a product is for people and the environment (rating: 1 = very safe to 5 = very unsafe). The QUH factor is shown optically in the traffic light.

You can immediately see how safely the product is rated:

– Everything is in the green – recommendable.
– In the yellow area – caution advised.
– In the red range – indoor use is not advisable.

What is in the puddle lime feel-good plaster?

The glass cylinder shows the original composition of the sump lime feel-good plaster and that not only in its individual components, but even in the actual proportions. KalkKind uses the transparent product recipe to visualize a consistent path to comprehensive product transparency.

Anyone who opts for the unique effect of natural lime should also have lime on their walls and ceilings. He doesn’t like the effect of cement, plastic additives, water repellants and other chemical cocktails on his walls in his bedroom or children’s room. If you choose natural lime, you want to make your living space healthy.

What does KalkKind's transparent product formulation reveal to us?

It is clearly shown that it is actually a pure mineral composition that has no organic components. Synthetic ingredients cannot be found. What is striking is the particularly high proportion of high-quality sump lime as the sole binding agent.