ABSTRACT
Environmental awareness, the desire to protect resources, and the aim of agricultural producers to use available capacities for the cultivation of technical raw materials—harvestable raw materials—have led to a new generation of lubricants and functional fluids. Natural fatty base oils for lubricant development regained favor in the early 1980s, and this fit well into development programs for environmentally harmless and non-workshop-polluting products. Rapid biodegradability is a generally desirable feature for substances that may eventually enter the soil and waters and also for biological purification plants. The biodegradability of used lubricants can be altered by contamination. Naturally, toxicity testing for environmental protection purposes must also include mammalian and human toxicity, all the more so if safety-at-work and environmental protection concerns are combined. A certain degree of soil protection is offered by water protection legislation. Water pollution categories for water-polluting substances have a major influence on the storage and handling of these substances.
