Emissions of hazardous substances from construction products

The Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry offers a service for the determination of emissions of hazardous substances from construction products based on Decree No. 6/2003 Coll. This establishes the hygienic limits of chemical, physical and biological indicators for the indoor environment of living rooms of certain buildings, as amended.

Non-harmonised construction products that are not regulated by the relevant EU regulations are subject to Czech law within the EU. At this national level they are regulated by Act No. 22/1997 Coll. on Technical Requirements for Products and on amendments and additions to certain acts and its implementing Government Regulation No. 163/2002 Coll., which lays down technical requirements for selected construction products. These documents also include requirements for emission of hazardous substances into the indoor environment of buildings, however, limit values are not defined at EU level and individual Member States follow their national requirements for hygienic emission limits. In the Czech Republic this is Decree No. 6/2003 Coll. which establishes hygienic limits for chemical, physical and biological indicators for the indoor environment of living rooms of some buildings.

Scope of service offered by our laboratory:

Determination of the emission of selected organic compounds listed in Decree No. 6/2003 Coll. which sets the hygienic limits of chemical, physical and biological indicators for the indoor environment of living rooms of certain buildings, using the emission procedure from a solid sample of building material according to EN 16516+A1 .

• Performing the emission of a sample from a building product according to EN 16516+A1 and ISO 16000-9 in a test chamber
• Determination of selected volatile organic compounds (VOC) limited by Decree No. 6/2003 Coll , i.e. benzene, toluene, sum of xylenes, styrene, ethylbenzene, trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, by GC-MS according to ISO 16000-6 Indoor air - Part 6: Determination of volatile organic compounds in indoor and test chamber air by active sampling on Tenax TA sorbent, thermal desorption and gas chromatography using MS or MS-FID
• Determination of aldehyde emissions including formaldehyde by HPLC according to ISO 16000-3 Indoor air - Part 3: Determination of formaldehyde and other carbonyl compounds in indoor air and test chamber air - Active sampling method

According to these international test regulations the determination of the emission of volatile substances is carried out after 3 and then after 28 days. Due to the limit values specified in Decree No 6/2003 Coll. and the fact that the emission value decreases significantly over time, in most sample cases the measurement after 3 days is sufficient to demonstrate compliance with the requirements of the national legislation. In the case of interest it is also possible to perform long-term emission determinations after 28 days.

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