Harmonisation of indoor material emissions labelling systems in EU: inventory of existing schemes

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and emissions frombuilding materials have been over the last decadesa major challenge for scientists, industryand consumers. In response to the need for improvedconsumer protection different kinds oflabelling systems for material emissions havebeen developed in many European countries andby industrial organisations. The main purpose isto protect consumers from exposure to chemicalpollutants and resulting adverse health effects(i.e., carcinogenic, teratogenic, irritant) or annoyanceby bad odours, which could be causedby chemical emissions from materials. This protectioncan be effectively achieved by supportingthe market demand for low emitting materials.The labelling systems developed are typicallyvoluntary for the manufacturers. In spite ofa trend towards European harmonisation, mostof these labelling systems are mainly focussedon national markets and often require specifictests. Despite a common market there is noharmonised system for material emission labellingavailable in Europe. This paper reviews anddiscusses recent developments concerning theindoor material labelling schemes at Europeanlevel.