Citation:

Liu, X., M. Mason, Z. Guo, Ken Krebs, AND N. Roache. Source emission and model evaluation of formaldehyde from composite and solid wood furniture in a full-scale chamber. ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, 122:561-568, (2015).

Impact/Purpose:

This research is to evaluate formaldehyde source emission models using experimental data. It is to help future development of formaldehyde exposure models and formaldehyde risk assessments.

Description:

This paper describes the measurement and model evaluation of formaldehyde source emissions from composite and solid wood furniture in a full-scale chamber under dynamic conditions using ASTM D 6670-01 (2007). Four brands of the same type furniture product were tested. The data were used to evaluate two empirical emission models, i.e., a first-order and power-law decay model. The experimental results showed that some furniture tested in this study, fully made of solid wood with less surface area, had low formaldehyde source emissions. The effect of ventilation rate on formaldehyde emissions was also examined. Model simulation results indicated that the power-law decay model showed better agreement, especially for long-term emissions, than the first-order decay model for the data collected from the tests. This research was limited to a laboratory study with only four brands of the same type of furniture tested. It was not intended to comprehensively test or compare the large number of furniture products available in the market place. Therefore, care should be taken when applying the test results to real-world scenarios. Also, it was beyond the scope of this study to link the emissions to human exposure and potential health risks.

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