office@tb-klade.at
My name is Manfred Klade. I hold a PhD in organic chemistry and a diploma in environmental engineering and started my professional career at planning offices. My tasks comprised analysis and assessment of sewage treatment plants.
From 2000 to 2012 I worked at the Inter-University Research Centre IFZ in Graz (Austria) and was temporarily heading the department Ecological Product Policy (now: Public Procurement). I dealt with questions of sustainable consumption, the focus of my work was the evaluation of hazardous substances in disinfectants, cleaning agents, cosmetics and nanoproducts. Work on the assessment of disinfectants proved to be sustainably successful. The assessment tool “Disinfectant Database WIDES” was made available online by the City of Vienna for procurement managers and hygiene specialists.
In 2012 I started my own business with the Bureau for Chemical Engineering TB-Klade, with a focus on the technical support and updating of the WIDES database. The database received an international response beyond Austria and the German-speaking world: it was used, for example, in the globally implemented SAICM 2.0 project to advise hygiene teams and procurement managers in 40 hospitals on 4 continents on the purchase of disinfectants.
The office investigates the hazards associated with the use of preservatives, disinfectants, façade coatings, household cleaners, detergents and rodenticides. In one study, I analysed the use of biocidal agents in evaporative cooling systems, which are added to cooling water to protect against microbial contamination.
For the analysis and evaluation of ecological and toxicological substance and product properties, I primarily use data from the European Chemicals Agency ECHA. It is important to me, that evaluations and recommendations for precautionary environmental and health protection rely on independent and verified data.
In addition to my main topic – the human and ecotoxicological assessment of substances and products – I have developed the calculation method “Life Cycle Oriented Origin Analysis” and published it in a scientific paper. The Analysis can be used to calculate the origin of products along the value chain.