California Section 01350 defines low-emitting building products

Manufacturers have several available options for promoting their low-emitting building products that are used in office buildings, school classrooms and other indoor commercial applications.

Most of the available pathways reference the same methods and IAQ criteria as described in a CA Department of Public Health (CDPH) document, Standard Practice for the Testing of Volatile Organic Emissions from Various Sources Using Small-Scale Environmental Chambers, 2004 . This laboratory practice is based on the product VOC emissions portion of architectural specification California Section 01350 for healthy and sustainable building construction. The practice requires:

• Specific procedures for product sample collection, handling, shipping and chain-of-custody documentation
• Specific procedures for preparing test specimens from product samples
• A prescribed time line from manufacturing date to the start of a test
• Conditioning of test specimens for 10 days at 23±2^oC and 50±10% RH immediately followed by a 96-hour small-scale chamber test at 23±1^oC and 50±5% RH
• Air sample collection for VOCs and aldehydes at 24, 48 and 96 hr during chamber test
• Identification and quantitative analysis of VOCs emitted to air by the product with emphasis on VOCs of concern with respect to health as determined by Cal-EPA, including:
  

• ­VOCs with Chronic Reference Exposure Levels (CRELs) established by CA Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA );
• ­ VOCs on the Toxic Air Contaminant Identification List
• ­ VOCs listed as carcinogens and reproductive toxicants by the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65 )
• ­ Ten most abundant VOCs

VOC emission factors calculated from the chamber test are used to model indoor air concentrations for a standard office space and a school classroom using defined ventilation rates, areas or quantities of the product, space volumes, and a ventilated volume fraction. The practice requires that the modeled concentration of a VOC at the 96-hr test period not exceed one half of the CREL. This safety factor is intended to accommodate multiple sources of the VOC in the space. There are the two exceptions to the CREL rule as defined in CDHS Addendum 2004-01, Justification for Using Concentration Limits Other Than Those Listed in OEHHA's Chronic REL List: Formaldehyde and Acetaldehyde . The limit for formaldehyde is based on an 8-hr indoor REL of 33 µg/m³, i.e., the allowed concentration is 16.5 µg/m³. For acetaldehyde, the full chronic REL of 9 µg/m³ is allowed.

BAA Personnel were part of the team that originally developed CA Section 01350 and the Standard Practice. We are familiar with all aspects of the procedure and can assist you in applying it to your products as well as to entire building projects.