EMISSION OF VOLATILE ORGANIC-COMPOUNDS FROM FURNITURE COATINGS

Emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from different types of furniture coatings have been investigated by test chamber studies unde r dynamic conditions. A total of 150 VOCs could be identified in the c hamber air. Compound groups occurring most often were aliphatic and ar omatic aldehydes, ketones, aromatic hydrocarbons, glycols and esters. Special attention was paid to the detection of typical components of c oating materials such as acrylic monomers, photoinitiators and other a dditives. The TVOC-values, measured after a preconditioning period of 20 days, ranged from 4 mu g/m(3) to 1288 mu g/m(3) with an arithmetic mean of 173.9 mu g/m(3) and a median 60.0 mu g/m(3). The highest chamb er concentrations of individual components were found for some solvent residues such as n-butylacetate, butylglycol, 1-butanol-3-methoxy-ace tate and butyldiglycolacetate. The results have shown that furniture m ay contribute significantly to indoor air pollution. The calculated em ission factors were comparable with data reported for other indoor mat erials.con.