Ecotoxicology of building materials: A critical review of recent studies

Mutual interactions of building materials and environment taking place during their whole life cycle result in various substances being released, transported, accumulated, degraded, and uptaken by living organisms, including humans. The emmisions from buildings into the environment can negatively affect both human health and ecosystems quality. An appropriate assessment of these processes and identification of produced emissions becomes so a necessity for a responsible protection of both people and nature. In this paper, an overview of recent studies on the ecotoxicity of building materials is presented which includes all major phases of their life cycle. Based on the literature review and the critical assessment of current methodologies, the ecotoxicology of building materials can be characterized as an underestimated topic of research at present. The development of appropriate models for the evaluation of ecotoxicity of building materials and their emissions in the life cycle assessment studies, creation of a representative database of ecotoxicological data of building materials, and design of innovative methodologies taking into account the complex character of building materials belong to the most significant challenges of this research field.