A NEW APPROACH FOR INDOOR CLIMATE LABELING OF BUILDING-MATERIALS - EMISSION TESTING, MODELING, AND COMFORT EVALUATION

A labeling system for building materials' primary emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) according to their impact on comfort and hea lth has been developed and introduced in Denmark. The system unifies c hemical emission testing over time (months), modeling (including a sta ndard room and mathematical modeling of the emission profile, when nec essary), and health evaluation. As a first step, the Danish system foc uses on comfort, i.e. odor annoyance and mucous membrane irritation, b ecause of their preponderance in the sick building syndrome reporting and the absence of other relevant data on indoor air related health ef fects. Two design criteria have been set: the labeling system shall be easily comprehensible and al the same time operational and dynamic. T he principle is to determine the time value, t(C-m), required to reach the relevant indoor air value, C-m (presently, based on odor and muco us membrane irritation thresholds), in a standard room. Odor threshold s are used because they generally are at least one order of magnitude lower than mucous membrane irritation thresholds. t(C-m) is a measure of the period of time during which a new building material may cause i ndoor air quality problems, unless special precautions are made. The s ystem may also be used for singular VOCs of which a specific health en dpoint has been reported. The Danish labeling system is illustrated wi th the emission testing and comfort evaluation of two sealants using t he Field and Laboratory Emission Cell (FLEC). (C) 1996 Elsevier Scienc e