Harmonization of indoor material labelling systems in the EU - a critical review of existing labelling systems

Under the aspect of consumer protection different kinds of labelling systems for materialemissions have been developed in many European countries and by industrial organizations.Despite a common market there is no harmonized system for material emission available inEurope. In the second half of 2001, the European Collaborative Action on Urban Air, IndoorEnvironment & Human Exposure established a working group to bring forward theharmonization of the indoor material labelling schemes at European level. This paper presentsthe results of the first task accomplished by the WG, which is the critical review of existingindoor material labelling systems in the EU. This was achieved by comparing the existinglabelling systems on the basis of the following criteria: the legal status, the product relation,the basic requirements, the additional testing needed besides emission, the limit values, thetest of functionality and quality, the requirements concerning the test laboratories, the testspecimen preparation, the availability of a detailed analytical procedure, the utilization ofround robin tests, the regular testing of already labelled materials and finally the costs and themarket relevance.