by Ann Withanee — May 4, 2011—The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has approved the new edition of ANSI/BIFMA M7.1-2011 Standard Test Method for Determining VOC Emissions from Office Furniture Systems, Components and Seating; and also the new edition of ANSI/BIFMA X7.1-2011 Standard for Formaldehyde and TVOC Emissions of Low-emitting Office Furniture and Seating.
Copies of the new editions are available from BIFMA immediately. The BIFMA Furniture Emissions Subcommittee worked diligently to incorporate several improvements into the Standard Test Methods such as:
- expanding the use of small scale chamber testing;
- defining compliance requirements for individual items;
- expanding use of the power-law to predict emissions from test data at 3 and 7 days to 14 days;
- adding examples to make applying the standards easier;
- supporting the emissions credits in the BIFMA e3 sustainability standard;
- and multiple technical and analysis refinements to decrease variation and/or increase harmonization with other standards (ASTM, ISO, etc.).
Copies of the new standard can be ordered online at the BIFMA Web site.
