Test method

Using highly sens­it­ive labor­at­ory tech­niques such as gas chro­ma­to­graphy and mass spec­tro­metry, even the smal­lest traces of volat­ile organ­ic com­pounds (VOCs) in the air can now be iden­ti­fied and quan­ti­fied using stand­ard­ized test pro­ced­ures.

For this pur­pose, samples of build­ing mater­i­als are placed into stain­less-steel test cham­bers with a volume of 100 to 1000 liters, where typ­ic­al indoor cli­mates are sim­u­lated. The cham­bers are con­tinu­ously flushed with clean air. The air inside the cham­ber is com­pletely replaced every 2 hours. The tem­per­at­ure is 23 °C; rel­at­ive humid­ity of the incom­ing air is 50 %. Meas­ure­ments are taken after 3 days and after 28 days by sampling and ana­lyz­ing the exhaust air from the test cham­ber.

The test can be ter­min­ated when all pre­defined lim­it val­ues are met or not exceeded, but not earli­er than after 10 days. Dur­ing the test, con­cen­tra­tions of volat­ile organ­ic com­pounds (VOCs), car­ci­no­gen­ic sub­stances as well as semi-volat­ile organ­ic com­pounds (SVOCs) are meas­ured. The test meth­od is con­tinu­ously optim­ized to reflect the state of the art. It serves both as an ini­tial test for every license applic­a­tion and as an eval­u­ation basis for each sub­sequent spot check. Only labor­at­or­ies accred­ited accord­ing to ISO 17025 can be com­mis­sioned to per­form the tests.