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7 of 19 <br />emission rate (µg/m2-h) and the area (m2) of material in the IAQ Zone, and from each <br />furnishing (e.g. chairs, desks, etc.) from the unit-specific formaldehyde emission rate <br />(µg/unit-h) and the number of units in the IAQ Zone. <br /> <br />NOTE: As a result of the high-performance building rating systems and building codes <br />(California Building Standards Commission, 2014; USGBC, 2014), most manufacturers of <br />building materials furnishings sold in the United States conduct chemical emission rate <br />tests using the California Department of Health “Standard Method for the Testing and <br />Evaluation of Volatile Organic Chemical Emissions for Indoor Sources Using <br />Environmental Chambers”, (CDPH, 2017), or other equivalent chemical emission rate <br />testing methods. Most manufacturers of building furnishings sold in the United States <br />conduct chemical emission rate tests using ANSI/BIFMA M7.1 Standard Test Method for <br />Determining VOC Emissions (BIFMA, 2018), or other equivalent chemical emission rate <br />testing methods. <br /> <br />CDPH, BIFMA, and other chemical emission rate testing programs, typically certify that a <br />material or furnishing does not create indoor chemical concentrations in excess of the <br />maximum concentrations permitted by their certification. For instance, the CDPH emission <br />rate testing requires that the measured emission rates when input into an office, school, or <br />residential model do not exceed one-half of the OEHHA Chronic Exposure Guidelines <br />(OEHHA, 2017b) for the 35 specific VOCs, including formaldehyde, listed in Table 4-1 of <br />the CDPH test method (CDPH, 2017). These certifications themselves do not provide the <br />actual area-specific formaldehyde emission rate (i.e., µg/m2-h) of the product, but rather <br />provide data that the formaldehyde emission rates do not exceed the maximum rate allowed <br />for the certification. Thus for example, the data for a certification of a specific type of <br />flooring may be used to calculate that the area-specific emission rate of formaldehyde is <br />less than 31 µg/m2-h, but not the actual measured specific emission rate, which may be 3, <br />18, or 30 µg/m2-h. These area-specific emission rates determined from the product <br />certifications of CDPH, BIFA, and other certification programs can be used as an initial <br />estimate of the formaldehyde emission rate. <br />