Essential requirements on construction products and current European standardization of emission test methods

Since materials in building structures, and especially those applied to surfaces in largequantities, are permanently exposed to the indoor air, it is crucial to develop anunderstanding to what extent they contribute to indoor air pollution. Numerouslaboratory investigations have been reported concerning releases of chemicalsubstances from interior building materials. However, several of these substances areseldom associated with complaints or building related illness. It could therefore beworthwhile to give an overview of technically well-documented case studies wherechemical substances have been positively identified in the indoor air in various typesof buildings. This updated overview is limited to surface materials as primaryemission sources and based on an international review of case studies (1) in whichmost of the cases not have been published earlier. The review is covering variousmaterials containing more or less volatile functional chemicals or their degradationproducts.The overview does not include radon or formaldehyde, as the sources of thesesubstances can be regarded as well known. Since building materials can be consideredas key emission sources, the current development of standardised emission testmethods within the frame of the Construction Products Directive (2) are described.