Indoor air: reference material for VOCs Better protection from indoor air pollutants

Furniture, floor coverings, paints and other products can release volatile substances that might be harmful to health. Matthias Richter is developing reference materials for air pollutants in an EU project so that they can be better contained.

It has long been a known phenomenon that people who spend a large part of their time in offices or other enclosed spaces complain of health problems. Common complaints include watery eyes, mucous membrane irritation, headaches, shortness of breath or asthma. Researchers refer to this as building related illness. Among other things, so-called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are considered to be the triggers. VOCs are gaseous emissions that can be released by floor coverings, furniture, wall paints or varnishes. They include substances such as formaldehyde, but also solvents and a wide variety of additives that are supposed to improve product properties.

80 percent lifetime in closed rooms

The danger posed by VOCs has gained in importance because people in Europe nowadays spend more than 80 percent of their lifetime indoors. In addition, airtight windows and better insulation reduce natural air exchange and worsen the issue. In principle, furniture and building materials must not pose a health risk. But tests for VOCs are only mandatory for certain product groups. In addition, there is a fundamental problem: as volatile substances, VOCs are often difficult to measure and quantify. “Up to now, there have been uniform test regulations for VOCs, but there are still gaps in the traceability of these tests. This means that the accuracy of the measured values is not always known and therefore the comparability of the results is difficult,” explains Matthias Richter, expert for air pollutants at BAM.

VOCs

The European Commission has identified a particular need for research in the area of VOCs in 2020. BAM is coordinating a project with partners from metrological institutes, university and non-university institutions and test laboratories from seven countries. It is funded by the European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research (EMPIR). “We want to develop a reference material that releases a defined amount of different VOCs, which are often found indoors, over a longer period of time,” explains Matthias Richter, who leads the project. “With this material, companies that operate test chambers will be able to check whether their measuring equipment really works accurately. At the same time, we want to develop certified reference gas standards, i.e. substances with which laboratories can calibrate their measuring devices for VOCs exactly in the future. Overall, this should improve both comparability of product tests and validation of the data.”

The development of reference materials and standards in this area is technically challenging, time-consuming and thus cost-intensive and can hardly be done by the private sector. BAM, on the other hand, specialises in reference products and research on VOCs and has the necessary know-how. “With our research we want to contribute to health protection and at the same time to safety for manufacturing companies,” says Matthias Richter. “In the end, the aim is to ensure that people indoors are largely protected from hazards caused by VOCs.”