Science
Zinc is a natural component of the soil. There are soils with low levels of zinc and those with high levels. Zinc is contained in the form of ores in the earth's crust with an average content of 70 mg/kg. This corresponds to a proportion in the earth's crust of 0.007% or 198,000,000 Mt. Weathering and erosion of rocks, soils and sediments by wind and water bring small amounts of zinc into circulation naturally, making it available to plants, animals and people in drinking water and available in food - the trace nutrient zinc is essential for physical development and is responsible for a number of body functions from enzyme and blood formation to hair growth. The human use of zinc and the resulting zinc losses play a much smaller role than the natural ones. The highest zinc inputs from human activity occur in agriculture through the use of fertilizer, manure and liquid manure. Zinc in household wastewater from the use of personal care items, pharmaceuticals and ointments also ultimately influence our soils through the use of sewage sludge. Today, erosion from building products has no significant impact on the environment. The cause of zinc erosion from roof surfaces and from constructions protected against corrosion with zinc, the precipitation identified as “acid rain” in the 80s and 90s of the last century, no longer exists today due to a variety of environmental measures such as desulphurization systems from coal-fired power plants to automotive catalytic converters . As a result, zinc removal from zinc surfaces has been reduced by up to 90% since 1970. Precipitation runoff from roofs generally contains less zinc than permitted in drinking water.
PRECIPATION
Precipitation is often collected from sealed surfaces on buildings in decentralized systems (troughs, trenches, etc.) and fed into the soil and groundwater - a practice that is beneficial to the urban microclimate, groundwater regeneration and the relief of sewage treatment plants. The vegetated topsoil (kf permeability coefficient 10-5 recommended [1]) of an infiltration trough takes on a cleaning function. For zinc erosion, this means the permanent binding of zinc ions in the upper 3-5 cm [2] [3] of the soil zone. These zinc ions only reach the groundwater to a very limited extent.
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The RainwaterCheck-ZINK compares the zinc emissions at your property with the official environmental quality targets and precautionary/minor threshold values (GFS) for soils and groundwater.
