2011. 10. 31

Safety control for furniture in Korea

Asia-Pacific Consumer Product Safety Symposium

1 Needs of safety control for furniture

2 Abroad

3 Korea

4 Emission test method for furniture

5 Results, Direction of development for IAQ

Contents

Needs of Safety Control for furniture

Consumer complain

New furniture consumer - 87.5 % odor complaint

- 43.6 % eye & throat irritation experience

Increased consumer complaint for new furniture

Source: survey report from Consumer Agency (2006)

Main cause of indoor air pollution

High pollutant emissions of furniture in householdsFurniture>Home appliance>Office equipment>Bedding

Wood-based panels are the main source, have continuous emission problems

Source: Press release from Ministry of Environment(2008)

TVOC0

1

2

3

4

5

6

HCHO0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8

가구류

가전제품

사무기기

침구류

장난감

Em

issi

on f

act

or

(mg

/unit

·h)

Volatile organic compound (TVOC) Formaldehyde(HCHO)

FurnitureHome applianceOffice equipmentBeddingToys

New furniture release hazardous substances even after one month

AbroadAbroad

2005 2006 2004 2006

Plane

2-dimensional,

3-dimensional

products &

Furniture

Plane

2-dimensional,

3-dimensional

products &

Furniture

Workstationsystem,

Movable walls,Bedding,Seating,Tables,

Workstation components

Workstationsystem,

Movable walls,Bedding,Seating,Tables,

Workstation components

System furnitureSeating

System furnitureSeating

Workstation systems

Seating(office),individual furniture

components

Workstation systems

Seating(office),individual furniture

components

BlueAngel

Greenguard

LEED BIFMA

Small chamber

Large chamber

Small chamber

Large chamberLarge chamber

Large chamber

Small chamber

2004

Building

Materials

(include

wooden

products)

Building

Materials

(include

wooden

products)

Eco-Mark

Small chamber

Dessicator

Nation

Labelingscheme

Scope

(Products)

Scope

(Products)

Test protocol

Europe/JapanEurope/Japan

Substance

Plane two-dimensional products

Furniture and other products with a three-dimensional

surface(24 ± 2) h 28th day (24 ± 2) h 28th day

Formaldehyde - 0.05 ppm - 0.05 ppm

VOCs - 300 ㎍ /㎥ - 600 ㎍ /㎥SVOCs - 100 ㎍ /㎥ - 100 ㎍ /㎥CMT

Substance < 1 ㎍ /㎥ < 1 ㎍ /㎥ < 1 ㎍ /㎥ < 1 ㎍ /㎥

Blue Angel (RAL-UZ 38)/Ger-many

Eco Mark (Furniture)/Japan

Wooden materials used for indoor furniture shall not emit formaldehyde Formaldehyde emission criteria : F****(JIS and JAS)

SubstanceTest

methodCertification Criteria

Desiccator method JIS A 1460 Average : 0.3 mg/L, Maximum : 0.4 mg/L

Small chamber method JIS A 1901 5 ㎍ /(㎡ h)

U.S.A.U.S.A.

SubstanceWorkstations, Movable

Walls,Casegood Systems

Seating, Individual Casegoods,

Tables, Workstation Components

Individual VOCs 0.1TLV 0.1TLV

Formaldehyde 0.05 ppm 0.025 ppm

4-PhenylcycloHexene 0.0065 mg/m3 0.0033 mg/m3

Styrene 0.07 mg/m3 0.035 mg/m3

Total VOCs 0.5 mg/m3 0.25 mg/m3

Total Aldehtdes 0.1 ppm 0.05 ppm

Respirable Particles 0.05 mg/m3 0.05 mg/m3

Greenguard Indoor Air Quality Product Certification

All products are required to meet the criteria at 168 hours (7th day)

Office Modeling : Room Volume(32 m3), Air Change Rate(0.72 hr-1)

LEED CI 2009(EQ Credit 4.5) criteria

ANSI/BIFMA M7.1-2011 (add a new technique in revision)

→ Furniture product evaluation with small chamber method by direct scaling

KOREAKOREA

`

Ministry of Knowledge Economy : Product Safety Certification - Small chamber method : TVOC, Toluene, HCHO - Desiccator method : Formaldehyde

Ministry of Environment(Evaluation criteria for furniture) - Large chamber method : TVOC, HCHO - Recommend, eco-grade criteria : 14 days emission rate

Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs(MLTM)- Housing Performance Grading Indication System- IAQ : Application of Low-Emission Products(4 grades)- Construction materials, Furniture

Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs(MLTM)- Clean Healthy House Construction Standards- Housing Performance Grading Indication System (first grade)

MKE (Ministry of Knowledge Economy)MKE (Ministry of Knowledge Economy)

Safety/Quality Labelling System(Furniture)

Scope : All furniture in home, office, school(table, chair, cabinet, bed, sofa, kitchen..)

Safety Standards : Table 1 or Table 2

Test Item Permissible Limit value Test method

Formaldehyde (mg/L) ≤ 1.5 (Average value)Desiccator

method

Test Item Permissible Limit value Test method

HCHO (mg/m2·h) ≤ 0.12Small chamber

methodToluene (mg/m2·h) ≤ 0.08

TVOC (mg/m2·h) ≤ 4.0

Test method : KS M 1998 (Determination of the emission rate of formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds in building interior products)Sampling(Small chamber method) : 7 days(168 h ± 2 h) from t0

< Table 1 >

< Table 2 >

ME (Ministry of Environment)ME (Ministry of Environment)

Evaluation criteria for furniture(2010.09)

※ Large chamber method : emission factor at 14 days

※ Test Products : 53 (bookcase, desk, sofa, table, chair etc)

SubstanceEmission rate, mg/(unit·h)

Recommend Eco-grade

TVOC 5.60 1.10

Toluene 3.60 0.70

Formalde-hyde

1.40 0.30

No.

Emission frequency( 회 ) Emission rate(mg/unit·h)

SubstanceFre-

quencySubstance

Emission rate

1 Formaldehyde 53 Toluene 0.64

2 Toluene 52Formalde-

hyde0.58

3Acetone/Acetalde-

hyde51 Acetone 0.17

4m,p-xylene/Ethyl-

bezene47 Alpha-Pinene 0.09

Source: Press release from Ministry of Environment(2010.09)

※ This guideline is established to meet each half value of “Indoor air quality management

standard”

and “WHO guideline”, by estimated building concentration from product emission factor

with model room(40 m3, 0.7 h-1) in KS I 2007.

MTLM (Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs)MTLM (Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs)

TVOC HCHOTest

chamber Test method

Emission rate(t =7days)

Finishing materials (5)

Adhesives (5)Interior materials (2)

< 0.10 mg/(m2·h)

< 0.015 mg/(m2·h)

Small cham-ber

KS M 1998KS M ISO 16000-1

ME 2010-24

Built-in furniture (3) < 0.25 mg/m3 < 0.03 mg/m3Large

chamber

KS I 2007ASTM D 6670

Greenguard P066

※ The largest footprint finishes in applied material at least 30% on surface, shall be used.

Wardrobe(0.5)

Bedroom(0.5)Shoe rack(0.5)

Porch(0.5)

Cabinet(0.5)

Living room(0.5)

Wardrobe(0.5)

Kitchen(1.0)Kitchen furniture(1.0)

Bedroom(0.5)

Walls(2.0), Ceiling(1.0), Floor(2.0)

Interior finishes(5.0)

Walls(2.0), Ceiling(1.0), Floor(2.0)

Adhesives(5.0)

Walls(1.0), Ceiling(0.5), Floor(0.5)

Other than interior finishes(2.0)

주침실

LivingRoom

MainBedroom

Housing Performance Grading Indication System : first grade

Test method : KS I 2007, ASTM D 6670, JIS A 1911/1912, GGTM.P066

Test Method

PB + LPM

Door

PB + PVC + EVA

Body

HDF + PVC + EVA

Back plate

component

24 m3 chamber 1 m3 chamber 20 L chamber

Whole-piece test Component test KS M 1998

surface

Component test

Specimen sampling(surface to edge ratio)

surface+edges

Seal cutting surface

KS M 1998 Small chamber method

RAL-UZ 38Consider the exposed surface,

seal cutting surfaces

KS M 1998Desiccator Method

Specimen sampling(surface + cutting edge)

surface+edges

Test protocol - DesiccatorTest protocol - Desiccator

KS M 1998, ISO 12460-4, JIS A 1460

- Pre conditioning : for constant mass, sustain samples at (20 ± 2) ℃, (65 ± 5) %

- Desiccator test : 2 sets of desiccators, specimens installed , keep at 20 ℃ during 24 hours

- Analysis : Treat water sample in each desiccators for absorbing HCHO by acetylacetone method

& analyze the concentration with the UV/vis spectrophotometer.

Test procedure

- Formaldehyde emission test for wood-based panels(MDF, PB, Plywood) & construction materials.

- Test for evaluation the grade(E0, E1, E2) how much the products content formaldehyde.

- Maximum emission mass because of enlarged cutting surfaces in specimen, not in final product.

- No functional relations with indoor air concentration affected in real product.

(especially, different test condition – temp., humidity and isolated chamber)

specimen numberas surface area

keep in chamberfor constant mass

installation specimenwith water

keep in 20℃, 24 h(2 desiccators)

instrument analysis

after reaction

AnalysisSamplingTest ConditionSpecimen install.

Test protocol – small chamberTest protocol – small chamber

KS M 1998, ME2010-24Building materials(Korea)

RAL-UZ 38 Wooden products(Blue Angel, Germany)

SpecimenTemp. & HumidityACH & Test period

Target Compounds

Surface only, (0.4 ~ 2.0) m2/m3

(25 ± 1) ℃, (50 ± 5) %0.5 h-1, 7 days

TVOC, Toluene, Formaldehyde

Surface + narrow surface, 1.0 m2/m3

(23 ± 1) ℃, (45 ± 5) %1.0 h-1, 28 daysTVOC, SVOCs, CMTs, Formaldehyde

- Test for the emission rate of indoor air contaminants from the test specimen.- Between building products and furniture, different specimen installation in chamber for each surfaces.- In RAL-UZ 38 & BIFMA M7.1, small chamber results make use of the tool to evaluate the furniture.

AnalysisSamplingTest conditionProduct installation

Test method for furniture

○ KS I 2007 (Korea)

○ Greenguard Test Method P066, ANSI/BIFMA M7.1 (USA)

○ RAL-UZ 38 (Germany)

Test protocol – large chamberTest protocol – large chamber

Chamber Concentration(mg/m3)

Product Emission Factor(mg/(unit·h))

Indoor Concentration(mg/m3)

ModelRoom

Predictable

TestCondition

Indoor Guideline(REL)(mg/m3)

- Emission factor at time t, make use of predicted exposure concentration by model room.

Results, Direction of Development for IAQResults, Direction of Development for IAQ

For improve IAQ

ContaminantsEmission

Good IAQ

Clean IAQ

PollutantsReduction

Ventilation to improveindoor air quality

IAQ improvement & occupants’ safety

Normal furnishing Eco-friendly material Reduced functional materials

Source test to minimize

Poor IAQ

Evaluation of the productWHO Guideline

Materials Management Healthy IAQ Products Management

ContaminantsEmission

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