The process was triggered by the discovery of PCB-bearing grout in the office rooms of the East Yard of the Hohenheim Palace in spring 2019. In the years 2009 and 2016 old problems with the buildings and the way these were dealt with surprised members and management of the University:
Use for campus-wide pollutant screening
Since spring 2019, the university management has also been advocating for a campus-wide pollutant screening of harmful substances in buildings. The focus is on the pollutants PCB, PCP, asbestos, and synthetic mineral fibers. This was triggered by years of health hazards to several university members caused by PCB-containing building materials in the Brand wing of Hohenheim Palace, of which the affected persons and the university management were informed in spring 2019.
The University finds itself in the difficult situation of having to rely on the cooperation of the Ministry of Finance, which is the owner of the building and manages the campus buildings via its non-university subsidiary, the Stuttgart-Hohenheim University Building Authority, for all issues relating to its buildings.
The University of Hohenheim has commissioned 100 air measurements to speed up the screening and subsequent removal of harmful substances. These measurements will now be carried out step by step and on an as-needed basis. The measuring locations and results will be published here.
In the future, even in the case of smaller construction maintenance measures in buildings with suspected pollutants, an analysis of harmful substance will be carried out by an expert before the start of the construction measure. Previously, this was only done for larger renovations.
