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adhesives, and any products constructed with composite wood products containing urea - <br />formaldehyde resins (e.g., plywood, medium density fiberboard, particleboard). <br />3.) Calculate the Formaldehyde Emission Rate. For each building material, calculate the <br />formaldehyde emission rate (µg/h) from the product of the area -specific formaldehyde <br />emission rate (µg/m2-h) and the area (m) 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 />NOTE: As a result of the high-performance building rating systems and building codes <br />(California Building Standards Commission, 2014; USGBC, 2014), most manufacturers <br />of 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 />CDPH, BIFMA, and other chemical emission rate testing programs, typically certify that <br />a material or furnishing does not create indoor chemical concentrations in excess of the <br />maximum concentrations permitted by their certification. For instance, the CDPH <br />emission rate testing requires that the measured emission rates when input into an office, <br />school, or residential model do not exceed one-half of the OEHHA Chronic Exposure <br />Guidelines (OEHHA, 2017b) for the 35 specific VOCs, including formaldehyde, listed in <br />Table 4-1 of the CDPH test method (CDPH, 2017). These certifications themselves do <br />not provide the actual area -specific formaldehyde emission rate (i.e., µg/m2-h) of the <br />product, but rather provide data that the formaldehyde emission rates do not exceed the <br />maximum rate allowed for the certification. Thus, for example, the data for a certification <br />of a specific type of flooring may be used to calculate that the area -specific emission rate <br />of formaldehyde is less than 31 µg/m2-h, but not the actual measured specific emission <br />rate, which may be 3, 18, or 30 µg/m2-h. These area -specific emission rates determined <br />7of19 <br />