VOC emission chamber testing

VOC emissions tests enable manufacturers to handle the increasing demand of healthy and sustainable products - this means that products have low or even positive impact on indoor air quality. Compliance with legal requirements and with voluntary quality and ecolabels allow to distinguish low emission products from normal products and to position these on the market accordingly. Examples are German AgBB specification, used for DIBt regulation of floor coverings, GUT and EMICODE, Blue Angel, Austrian ecolabel, and specifications on sustainable buildings, e.g. LEED.

Latest news

Final version of new French VOC regulation has been officially published on 25 March 2011. This is about a mandatory labelling of all construction products and some more products installed indoors with their emission classes, based on emission testing and to be followed from 1. Jan. 2012. The details have been published on 13 May 2011 in another "arreté" document. Please note that the design of the label has been changed, compared to earlier announced versions.

Examples of labels with low VOC emission criteria:

Name	Products	Countries
Regulations on VOC and the voluntary AFSSET guideline	Construction products and decorative products	France
AgBB (DIBT)	Construction products and decorative products	Germany
M1	Construction products and decorative products	Finland
Danish Indoor Climate Label DICL	Construction products and decorative products	Denmark
GUT	Textile Flooring	Europe
EMICODE	Adhesives, levellers, sealants, parquet coatings	Europe
Blue Angel	Construction products and decorative products, furniture, mattresses etc.	Germany
California CDPH Section 01350	Construction products and decorative products, furniture etc. - method often used for LEED purposes	USA
ANSI/BIFMA labels	Office Furniture	USA
FloorScore	Resilient floor coverings	USA
Indoor Air Comfort	Eurofins certification	Europe
Indoor Advantage	SCS certification	USA

Further Information

You can see more information on labels and specifications with low VOC emissions on our website "Ecolabels and quality labels".

For further information you may download these small PDF files:

• Eurofins product testing portfolio, Overview
• Product certification "Indoor Air Comfort" and VOC emissions chamber testing
• AgBB/DIBT specifications on floor coverings and other construction products
• EMICODE - a label for low VOC emission flooring adhesives, sealants and related products
• VOC in paints and varnishes (Decopaint Directive)
• Product testing for compliance with LEED certification of sustainable buildings
• Microchamber - for quick pretests of VOC emissions
• Sample collection and preparation of test specimens for VOC emission testing
• Quality of VOC emissions testing

VOC Emissions Testing:

Eurofins offers emission testing in accordance with European, US American and international testing standards. Eurofins has been approved or is accepted for testing by numerous labels and regulations, see an overview here.

Besides chamber testing, Eurofins offers also simpler testing, in use mainly for pre-testing and for production control.

Some examples of tested parameters:

• Volatile organic compounds (VOC),
• Formaldehyde, diisocyanates and many more chemical compounds,
• Odour.

Some examples of tested products:

• Construction and interior finishing products
  (including floor coverings, paints and varnishes, adhesives, plates, insulation material,
  sealants)
• Furniture, mattresses
• Consumer products
• Air fresheners, cosmetics
• Industrial products

Your direct contacts:

Sales and consulting: Reinhard Oppl, email voc@eurofins.com

Sales and consulting USA: Denise Van Valkenburg, email voc@eurofins.com

Contact to Irish staff: conorhynes@eurofins.ie

Certification: Dr. Roland Augustin, email ccs@eurofins.com