Emissions from wood: Hearing on 25.01.
As announced, the natureplus Criteria Commission will hold a hearing on the intended amendment of RL5010 regarding typical emissions from wood in January 2022.
In September, the natureplus Criteria Commission already adopted a draft amendment to the Award Directive RL5010 "Low-emission construction products". The background to this is the fact that natural (biogenic) compounds such as aldehydes, terpenes or acetic acid are emitted from wood, which can be recognised by their typical odour. These outgassings can only be influenced to a limited extent by the manufacturers of wood-based materials and are essentially caused by the natural properties of the different types of wood. It is true that natureplus has always been committed to health precautions in the interior and consequently to a strict limitation of emissions from building products, which goes far beyond the requirements of the AgBB tests. On the other hand, however, we would like to support building with wood for environmental reasons and cannot ignore more recent scientific findings that indicate a low human toxicity of the above-mentioned typical wood emissions.
Therefore, in the draft amendment to natureplus RL5010, the limit value for the sum of volatile organic compounds (TVOC) after 28 days in the test chamber is to be raised from the current 300 to 1,000 µg/m³, especially for products made of wood and wood-based materials. For the wood-typical biogenic substance groups terpenes and aldehydes, the limit values are to be raised as follows: for the sum of bicyclic terpenes from 200 to 700 µg/m³ and for the sum of C4-C11 aldehydes (acyclic, aliphatic) from 100 to 200 µg/m³. Some time ago, for the same reasons, the limit value for acetic acid was raised to 600 µg/m³ and this was removed from the TVOC calculation.
These changes will now be discussed online at a hearing on Tuesday, 25 January 2022 from 10:00-12:00 to which all interested parties, manufacturers of wood-based panels, government institutions, natureplus members and partner organisations are cordially invited before they formally come into force. Registration for the event and initial information can be found at Eventbrite. Please register for your participation under the following link: Emissions from Wood: Public Hearing on natureplus Directive RL5010 Tickets, Tue 25 Jan 2022 at 10:00 | Eventbrite. There is also the possibility to submit written comments in advance. During the hearing we will discuss and weigh up these comments. At the beginning, Michael Köhler will present his expert report, which has analysed numerous recent scientific publications on the subject and at the same time evaluated the testing experiences of the natureplus-affiliated laboratories. He comes to the conclusion that a relaxation of the natureplus requirements for certain wood-typical compounds is indicated.
The expert report including the proposed amendments can be found below.