News from the expert groups - Our engagement continues: DIN 19573 + CEN/TC 216

In recent weeks, we have again been present at various expert groups on standardization.

A milestone has been reached with the publication of the draft of the revised DIN 19573 in April 2025. Dr. Tilman Gehrke in particular has been working on this revision since 2018. The main change is that the new standard now describes for the first time in a standard the method for material testing of biogenic sulphuric acid corrosion developed by Professor Sand and Professor Bock at the University of Hamburg in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Biological testing of concrete and mortar formulations is now the method of choice for the highest damage class XWW3. We have been offering this method for over 10 years now in cooperation with Dr. Holger Wack from the Fraunhofer Institute UMSICHT in Oberhausen (see at our website "Material testing to determine biogenic sulfuric acid corrosion"). After the public comment phase, the standard is expected to be finally published this year. It has already served and will continue to serve as a decisive guideline for local authorities when selecting the right concrete and mortar formulations for the renovation and new construction of wastewater transport pipes. The internationalization of DIN into a European standard is also running in parallel, and our expert Dr. Tilman Gehrke is of course also involved in the corresponding committee at CEN.

There were also important developments in CEN/TC 216, which were supported in particular by Dr. Florian H. H. Brill. As convenor of the strategic working group (WG 5), he took part in the TC plenary meeting in Berlin at the beginning of February, where, among other things, a structural reform of the standards in the TC was initiated on his initiative. The principle of centrally regulating central methodological details, such as EN 12353 and EN 14885, is being introduced and consistently implemented. In the medium term, this will lead to a significant simplification of the standard structure, i.e. significantly fewer standards overall, and at the same time to fewer misunderstandings because similar methodological details will no longer be presented in many places. The kick-off meeting of the Harmonization and Standardization Task Force, which is organized under WG 5 and will focus on this topic, was held in line with this. The project with the highest priority is the revision of EN 12353, for which Dr. Jürgen Gebel has taken over the project management. This standard is to be expanded and in future will also include the preparation of test organizations for efficacy testing, so that media, cultivation conditions, strain selection, strain maintenance, etc. are described in a central location. This information can then gradually disappear from the individual standards, making them simpler. As these contents are the main difference between comparable standards that describe the same test principle, they can be merged. One example is the series of standards EN 14561, EN 14562, EN 14563, which describe the test method for testing the effectiveness of manual instrument disinfectants and which are currently being revised. The responsible WG 1 is now considering whether these three standards should become one standard. In WG 1, Dr. Florian H. H. Brill and Anna Ulatowski are also leading the project to revise EN 14348, which is now entering the final phase. Anna took part in a project meeting to clarify the last open points. Dr. Florian H. H. Brill has also taken over the management of the "Polio Replacement" task force. The WHO wants to eradicate polio from the earth and has therefore also asked the ECHA and CEN to remove the poliovirus as a test virus from EN 14476 and the ECHA efficacy guidance by 2026. The dynamic group has already made great progress and identified two possible alternative viruses. These are the EMCV 1 strain Hungary and the Coxsackie virus strain B5. Compared to poliovirus, both viruses are now the subject of extensive ring trials, which should be completed by the end of the year. The main objective is to identify a virus strain that has a comparable resistance to the poliovirus and is also relevant in the field of application. Our virus experts Dr. Dajana Paulmann and Dr. Britta Becker are of course just as involved in this as in the further development of the 4-field test for virucidal testing, which is nearing technical completion.

We will continue to support this important voluntary work.