VOC emissions testing

German DIBt agency told us that they will no longer accept any applications for new abZ approvals, or for a change of an existing approval, for products that can be CE marked. This holds true since 31 January. You can try to send an application a little bit later, but there is no guarantee that it will be registered. Any applications having reached DIBt before that deadline will need to be decided until 15 October 2016.

As to handle the new situation on the German market, Eurofins supplied you with three explanatory webpages.

• The new and the old German regulation: www.eurofins.com/voc-germany.
• Details of the new and the old German regulation: www.eurofins.com/voc-abg.
• The transition period between old and new German regulation: www.eurofins.com/abg-transition.
  As an example, the Ü mark must not be affixed to products and to packaging after 15 October 2016 any longer.
  This page also contains some recommendations.

Please do not hesitate to contact the staff of our certification body by email to ccs@eurofins.com for any support or requests.

For further information, please see our homepage, e.g. www.eurofins.com/voc-germany, and follow this VOC Blog for any updates.

DIBt published a draft of the German requirements on low emitting construction products on 6 January 2016 in German language. Comments can be sent in until 28 January 2016.

The essentials of the draft are:

• It is a general document that will be detailed for specific products groups in a later step.
• It describes the requirements for healthy buildings that German authorities can require.
• Hazardous ingredients shall be avoided. Carcinogens of EU classes C1A and C1B are restricted except if they do not cause any risk to the users of the building. Therefore their emissions are limited with very sharp limit values.
• Requirements regarding contaminated waste are supplemented.
• The emissions requirements of AgBB 2015 are included, and supplemented by requirements on emissions of ammonia and nitrosamines, if relevant.
  For the AgBB 2015 requirements, see a table here: www.eurofins.com/agbb2015-limits.
• Limits for content of PAH (5 mg/kg BaP), nitrosamines (11 µg/kg), and PCP (5 mg/kg) are listed.
• In this document, there are no requirements on how the respect of these requirements shall be documented and prooved. This may follow.

For further information, please see our homepage, e.g. www.eurofins.com/agbb, and follow this VOC Blog for any updates.

The German DIBt system of approval of construction products before entry into market will have to change, to comply with European law, see our recent Blog entry.

DIBt issued a supplemental press release (in German) on 17 December 2015, describing the recent state of planning to revise the German regulation on low emitting construction products, to implement the decision of the European Court, see www.eurofins.com/dibt-barrier.

• The time schedule of the earlier announced changes was confirmed, see our recent Blog entry.
• It was confirmed that after 15 October 2016, the Ü mark must not be affixed to any CE marked product.
• German legislation is in planning that will specify which product properties must be fulfilled if authorities require use of low emitting products in certain buildings.
• DIBt declares that approvals (abZ) and certificates can be used to show compliance with these specifications also after 15 October 2016, until the end of their validity period.
• DIBt strongly recommends that the owners of the approvals continue to use the approvals (abZ) and the certificates for that purpose during the validity period. An extension of the validity until maximum April 2020 must be applied for before end of January 2016.
  This deadline is relevant for sending the application to DIBt; any necessary documents can be sent later. You will find the application documents on the webpage of DIBt under the headline “Forms”.
• DIBt recommends to continue the external surveillance (audits, retesting) during that time as specified in the respective approval abZ document.

The certification body of Eurofins  Product Testing A/S is about to prepare a pragmatic and cost-efficient approach that allows certification of low emitting products for the future German regulations and in parallel for the other VOC regulations across Europe. Last modifications of this approach may occur after the final German regulation is published. For more details, please contact our certification body with its newly appointed manager, Thomas Neuhaus, by email to ccs@eurofins.com.

A draft BREEAM International New Construction 2016 document is out for public comment until 1 February 2016. The methodology for assessing emissions from products has undergone a basic revision, see “Hea 02”.

For more details on VOC emissions in BREEAM, see www.eurofins.com/breeam.

The Swedish Chemical Agency, Kemikalieinspektionen, had received the task to investigate a Swedish regulation limiting the VOC emissions from construction products. A report was published in 2015.

It proposes a regulation specifying that all products used at interior floors, walls and ceilings shall comply with a list of limit values when tested after 28 days storage in a ventilated test chamber.

Both the limit values and the documentation duties are very much in line with the existing Belgian regulation, except that the Belgian regulation today is applied to flooring products only (the application to walls and ceilings still is under preparation).

If the regulation is adapated by the Swedish government, then it could be in force from early 2018 on.

A fast analysis of the report shows that the proposed regulation harmonizes with the plans to include a declaration of performance regarding VOC emissions into the regulations on CE marking. Compliance with the proposed regulation could also be shown with an Indoor Air Comfort or an Indoor Air Comfort GOLD certificate which combine the regulations in all EU Member States into one documentation and certification program.

For further reading:

• A related press release.
• The report with the proposal for a Swedish regulation (in Swedish; English summary is on page 8).
• The Belgian regulation: www.eurofins.com/belgium-voc.
• VOC emissions and CE marking: www.eurofins.com/cpr-voc and www.eurofins.com/cpr-ce-mark.
• Any further information can be found in the future here: www.eurofins.com/sweden-voc.
• The Europe-wide applicable product certification of low VOC emissions Indoor Air Comfort: www.indoor-air-comfort.com.

Please follow this Blog if you want to be updated with any further News on this subject.

German DIBt approval of construction products before entry into market will have to change, to comply with European law, see the background described here: www.eurofins.com/dibt-barrier.

Reliable information on what will change was expected in October 2015. But as of mid November 2015, the situation still remains unclear.

These are the facts we are aware of:

1. The German national abZ approvals in principle are illegal for CE marked products since the decision of the European Court on 16 October 2014.
2. But instead of having to apply this immediately, DIBt was granted a transition period of 2 years. This will end on 16 October 2016.
3. The regulation (“Musterbauordnung”), the associated “Bauregellisten B part 1”, as well as the Ü mark will disappear on 16 October 2016 for CE marked products. No abZ approvals will be issued by DIBt for CE marked products after 16 October 2016.
4. The Ü mark must not be used any longer for CE marked products after the 16 October 2016, probably with a sell-through period for products on stock.
5. The abZ approvals that are freshly granted or will be issued until 16 October 2016 will be valid until maximum 2020. Any abZ approval of a CE marked product cannot be required by German authorities after 16 October 2016 any longer, but they may be useful in the market, as it may take some years before the disappearance of the abZ and Ü mark system is known by all German architects and planners.
   It is though unclear whether the annual surveillance (inspection and re-testing), as required in the abZ approval to maintain its validity, still can be legally required once the legal basis has disappeared. On the other hand, the validity of the abZ approvals is connected clearly to the annual surveillance.
6. Applications for new abZ approvals or for abZ changes must reach the DIBt at the latest on 31 January 2016. Or rather on January 29, as the 31st is a Sunday. After that date, applications are no longer possible for CE marked products.
7. Products that do not fall under the CE marking regulations will NOT experience any change, such as flooring adhesives and parquet varnishes.

Consequence:

In earlier times, CE mark plus Ü mark showed serviceability of a product to be used in German construction works. From 16 October 2016, CE mark alone will do that job. All CE marked products can be distributed in all Member States of the European Union without national restrictions then.

For very most concerned products, today CE mark does not yet require to include a declaration of VOC emissions into indoor air in the declaration of performance. Until this is given, the user cannot read from CE marking whether it is legal to use the product in all Member States of the EU, which is in contrast to the intentions of the CE mark.

It can be expected that in Germany there will be established requirements on indoor air quality in certain categories of buildings that may need the use of low emitting products (AgBB compliant), see below.

This means that distribution of a CE marked construction product is allowed, but the use of this product may face problems if its use results in higher pollution of the indoor air than Germany will accept for certain categories of buildings. This is legal, because the European law forbids national restrictions of the distribution and use of construction products, but it allows national restrictions of the indoor quality in certain categories of buildings, such as apartments, schools, etc.

Plans and ideas (as far as known at the publication date of this information):

German authorities plan to issue a German Technical Settlement “TBB Technische Baubestimmung Anforderungen an Bauwerke bezüglich des Gesundheitsschutzes”. As no details have been published yet, we are reporting here what we heard in a hearing mid November 2015, and what we conclude from that information. But this may be different from the final TBB.

We at Eurofins assume (but we do not really know) that this TBB will contain the requirement that indoor air shall not exceed certain limits in certain categories of buildings, and that use only of AgBB compliant products can be regarded as a proof of fulfilment of this requirement. It still is unclear how the proof of AgBB compliance of CE marked products needs to be declared in the future, but the TBB probably will contain quality requirements for that declaration, further than just testing.

Possibly this regulation will allow for several options to show AgBB compliance:

• For products that can be CE marked, meaning that there is a harmonized EN standard which was mandated and approved by the European Commission for use with CE marking:
  • CE marking based on such a harmonized EN standard, if this contains a declaration of VOC emissions, and if the declared performance shows AgBB compliance.
    In the long run this will be the mainstream option, but today harmonized EN standards with such declaration of VOC emissions do not yet exist.
  • CE marking based on a European Technical Approval ETA, if this contains a declaration of VOC emissions, and if the declared performance shows AgBB compliance.
  • If none of the above is given, but still the product is CE marked, possibly still existing abZ approvals may serve this purpose. Possibly also other tools can be used to show AgBB compliance, such as independent labels, if these fulfill certain quality requirements – but this is still very open.
    In the case that this comes, then the Indoor Air Comfort product certification might be one out of several candidates for this option: Its basic level shows compliance with all legal requirements on VOC emissions in any Member State of the EU, AgBB included, and it includes the same level of external surveillance as the present DIBt regulation does.
• For products that do not fall under the CE marking regulations, such as flooring adhesives and parquet varnishes:
  • abZ approval by DIBt and the Ü mark, as before.

With that, Ü mark will be obsolete and must not be used for CE marked products any longer after 16 October 2016, and an abZ approval will have no legal relevance for CE marked products any longer.

But the abZ, within its validity and if surveyed by a surveillance body, can show to the participants of the market that the German AgBB VOC emissions requirements are respected – on top of what is declared in the CE mark related declaration of performance.

Should you apply for extended validity of your abZ?

Manufacturers of concerned products urgently need to know how things will develop and how they should act. DIBt recommends that all holders of an abZ approval apply for extension of its validity until the maximum possible date, 2020 (if not already the case) – even though holding an abZ cannot be required by authorities after 16 October 2016 any longer.

It is an issue of market evaluation. Many companies follow that advice, and they plan to use the abZ document to show low emissions of their products to the actors in the market even after 16 October 2016. At the same time, this is unfair because new products, or changed products (e.g. after a name change), will have no chance to obtain an abZ approval if the application cannot be sent in until 31 January. This will result in a market distortion after a short while. But this is how it looks today.

In any case, if a manufacturer wants to maintain its abZ after 16 Oct 2016 then the application for any change or any extension of its validity has to reach the DIBt until 31 January 2016 – even if some documents or test reports still are missing; these can be delivered during the approval process. The same applies to any application for a new abZ approval.

And if a manufacturer wants to maintain its abZ until its maximum validity, the annual surveillance needs to be continued to maintain the validity of the abZ document, as described in the abZ itself, but after 16 October 2016 there is no publicly legal basis for that activity – this is based only on private agreement and private jurisdiction then.

We would have preferred to deliver more stringent advice, but at the publication date of this information this was not possible because the revision of the German regulation is not yet clear enough. Each company has to draw its own conclusions now.

Disclaimer

It is difficult to give clear recommendations because the planned future regulation in Germany was not yet published. All above statements were made to our best knowledge and belief. We will not accept any liability if things develop in a different direction than predicted, as we do not have any influence on the decisions. Please be cautious in making your own conclusions, and we propose that you follow this VOC Blog to be updated as soon as we hear more.

You will read here when it is clear which of these options will apply.

The final publication of EN 16516 will help making VOC emissions testing better comparable and better accepted across Europe.

See also: www.eurofins.com/16516.