Chemical Emissions from Building Products (continued) TYPICAL BUILDING PRODUCT EMISSIONS The Green Building Council of Australia Green Star scheme has been a driving force in Australia for the testing of emissions from building construction, furnishings and furniture. The extent of reach has gone beyond those particular products specified to be tested as per Green Star. In the recent years CETEC has been actively assessing a wide range of materials used in buildings. This has enabled manufacturers/suppliers to obtain emission data for their product to demonstrate compliance with relevant criteria. As that same time CETEC has established a VOC emission “fingerprint” database of various building materials that is used in CETEC’s indoor air quality investigations. Table 1 shows some typical values for building products currently used in Australian buildings. In most cases the guideline requirement is to have less than 0.5 milligrams per square metre per hour at 24 hours or seven days depending on the product. This guideline requirement has been established through organisations such as Green Building Council of Australia via the Green Star rating scheme. Such guideline requirements have evolved into defacto regulations or architectural requirements for the acceptability of a product for use in a building. Most Australian manufactured building materials have been capable of meeting the acceptance criteria. Over the last few years TVOCs and formaldehyde levels have been reduced to satisfactory levels. Feedback is also provided to manufacturers/suppliers of building product about the indoor health impact of their product as it relates to TVOCs, VOC species and Formaldehyde. Building materials originating from nonAustralian sources can show levels of chemical emissions above the acceptance criteria. As well there is the potential for Table 1 Typical chemical emission from building product/ material. Application Material Carpet (Australian) Flooring Carpet (non-Australia n) V inyl (Australian) V inyl (non-Australian) Rubber Cork P lasterboard Cement Sheet Fit-Out MDF P lywood P articleboard High Pressure Laminate B amboo Ceiling Tile Fibreglass Insulation P olyester Insulation Rubber Insulation Furniture Items 88 | Natural Wood Foam S teel/Aluminium O il-Based Glue Water-Based Glue P lastic (PP, PE, ABS, PVC) S tone/Marble Fabric Vol 15 No. 2 | Hotel Engineer Typical Chemical Em ission Criteria Acceptance mg/m /hour 2 mg/m /hour 0.1 – 0.3 TVOC 0.04 – 0.01 4-PC 0.2 – 0.7 TVOC 0.04 – 0.01 4-PC 0.05 – 0.2 4 0.5 - 2 0.1 – 0.4 <0.5 24 hours <0.05 24 hours <0.5 24 hours <0.05 24 hours <0.5 24 hours <0.5 24 hours <0.5 24 hours <0.5 24 hours <0.05 – 0.2 TVOC <0.02 Formalde hyde 0.02 – 0.1 TVOC 0.01 – 0.04 Formaldehyde 0.1 – 0.3 TVOC 0.1 – 0.3 TVOC 0.1 – 0.3 TVOC <0.05 TVOC <0.05 TVOC 0.1 Formaldehyde 0.1 – 0.4 TVOC <0.01 – 0.05 Formaldehyde 0.05 – 0.2 TVOC <0.03 Formalde hyde <0.05 TVOC <0.01 Formalde hyde 0.1 – 0.5 <0.5 7 days 0.2 – 0.5 TVOC 0.1 – 0.6 TVOC <0.01 TVOC 5 TVOC <0.05 TVOC <0.05 – 0.2 TVOC <0.01 TVOC 0.05 – 0.2 TVOC 2 <0.5 7 days <0.5 7 <0.5 7 <0.5 7 <0.5 7 <0.5 7 days days days days days <0.5 7 days <0.5 24 hours <0.5 24 hours <0.5 24 hours <0.5 7 <0.5 7 <0.5 7 <0.5 7 <0.5 7 <0.5 7 <0.5 7 <0.5 7 days days days days days days days days compounds with known toxic effects to be present. Non-Australian manufacturers would appear not to be as diligent in seeking to minimise the indoor air quality impact of their product. Paints, coatings, adhesives and sealants are not represented in Table 1. This is because the voluntary schemes such as Green Building Council of Australia Green Star do not emphasis the emission testing of these products. For products such as paints, coatings, adhesives and sealants VOC content is used as a measure of environmental impact. Unfortunately VOC content and chemical emissions results are not that comparable. Thus a low VOC content product may not necessarily be a low VOC emission material. IMPROVING INDOOR AIR QUALITY The focus upon limiting emissions from building products should be positive for improving the indoor environment. The European experience has been that attention to the chemical emissions of materials has led to reduced present of some VOC chemicals. For instance some relatively toxic substances (e.g. benzene, halogenated hydrocarbons) are now less likely to be found in the indoor environment. The Australian outcome has been that formaldehyde levels in new buildings have been reduced to relatively low levels. This has been achieved through the formaldehyde minimisation requirements specified by Green Building Council of Australia Green Star scheme. It is very likely that a new building will have formaldehyde levels less than the World Health Organisation limit of 0.1 milligrams per cubic metre. There has also been a reduction TVOCs found in new buildings, though not necessarily to benchmark levels. More than ten years ago it was possible that a new building could provide up to 5 milligrams per cubic metre level of TVOCs. Now it is probable that the TVOCs in a new building will be of the order 0.3 to 1.5 milligrams per cubic metre. Nevertheless, the expectation should that a new building, especially a “green” building would attain less than 0.5 milligrams per cubic metre TVOC. n