Formaldehyde emission materials standards

Formaldehyde as a pollutant in the indoor air is usually connected with the use of formaldehyde based resins in e.g. building materials and in furniture. This article presents measurements of the formaldehyde emission from various products containing urea-formaldehyde (UF) or phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resins. The emission from all test objects have been measured in a ventilated test chamber at the standardized testing atmosphere 23 C, 50 % RH according to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The emission from woodbased panels and other materials have been measured at a loading factor of 1.0 m /m and at an air change rate of 1.0 h . ... 

Air chamber test, material standards for formaldehyde emission, 224... 

In our research we used AESO resin for producing wheat straw particleboards. Since both raw materials are derived from nature, this kind of particleboard is totally a bio-based product, without any use of forestry resources (wood particles) or any formaldehyde emissions (because AESO does not contain any formaldehyde). We made the boards, evaluated their physical and mechanical properties and eventually compared the results to wood particleboard EN-standards. 

In recent years, there have been many complaints relevant to indoor air pollution caused by formaldehyde and VOCs emissions from decorating and refurbishing materials in China. Beijing City s Changping District People s Court judged China s first damages lawsuit for indoor air pollution in June 2001. Formaldehyde, in a concentration surpassing the indicated standard by 19.5 times, with value of 1.56 mg/m in the owner s bedroom, resulted in the lawsuit [22]. 

The incidence of perceptible formaldehyde in homes, offices and schools has caused widespread uncertainty about the safety of living with formaldehyde. This uncertainty was enhanced by the large scale installation of urea formaldehyde foam insulation (UFFI) because a substantial part of this material was made from small scale resin batches prepared under questionable quality control conditions, and was installed by unskilled operators (10). The only reliable way to avoid such uncertainty is to know the emission rate of products and develop a design standard that allows prediction of indoor air levels. The first and most important step in this direction was achieved with the development and implementation of material emission standards. As indicated above, Japan led the field in 1974 with the introduction of the 24-hr desiccator test (6), FESYP followed with the formulation of the perforator test, the gas analysis method, and later with the introduction of air chambers (5). In the U.S. the FTM-1 (32) production test and the FTM-2 air chamber test (33) have made possible the implementation of a HUD standard for mobile homes (8) that is already implemented in some 90% of the UF wood production (35), regardless of product use. 

The use of synthetic resins Umits somewhat the environmental attractiveness of such adhesives based on purely natural materials, while the use of tannins alone is limited at present by the relatively Umited supply of these materials [1]. Thus, the aim is to prepare an adhesive based on materials of natural origin, satisfying international standards for both performance and emission, which does not emit or even better does not contain any formaldehyde, the composition of which does not include any synthetic resins, and that is less costly and uses widely available materials. This will render wood panel adhesives based on natural materials much more acceptable both economically and environmentally. 

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