As just announced by BIFMA and several other organizations, the U.S. EPA has agreed to a June 1, 2018 deadline for the enforcement of the national formaldehyde rule, Formaldehyde Act of Title VI of the Toxic Substances Control Act. The rule sets limits for formaldehyde emissions from most interior use composite wood products sold in the U.S. The agreement was approved by a U.S. District Court on March 13, 2018 and will be published in the Federal Register.

Composite wood products certified by a California Air Resource Board (CARB) third-party certifier (TPC) that also is recognized by EPA will be recognized as compliant until March 22, 2019. After March 22, 2019, only TSCA Title VI compliant and labeled products will be allowed. The agreement preserves the sell-through provision that applies to panels and finished goods manufactured prior to June 1, 2018.

Berkeley Analytical is honored to announce that it has been approved by The Building Information Foundation (RTS sr) of Finland as a testing laboratory for their M1-Certification program for low-emitting building materials. The Building Information Foundation is Finland's leading information service for the building and construction sector. Their M1-Certification program is well established and highly regarded throughout Western Europe. Berkeley Analytical has the distinction of being the sole approved laboratory http://m1.rts.fi/en/classification-fees-and-contact-information-for-laboratories-d362d0f6-677e-416b-bbbb-b231c4967560 outside of Europe.

On the heels of Berkeley Analytical’s ClearChem™ program being approved for inclusion in the mindful MATERIALS Program, GIGA and Berkeley Analytical have partnered to integrate ClearChem™ declarations with the Origin Material Hub. Thru this partnership, users of the Origin Material Data Hub and mindful MATERIALS Library will have access to search and use ClearChem™ declaration data.

Berkeley Analytical is pleased to announce that it has entered into a data sharing agreement with GIGABASE, Inc. (GIGA). Under this Agreement, we will work cooperatively with GIGA to make our ClearChem™ Self-Declared Certificate of Product Conformity data available on Origin, GIGA’s online material data hub. Data exchange with Origin will begin in early second quarter 2018. Origin facilitates the free exchange of building material information and certification information with architecture and design, construction industry, and building management professionals. Origin also is the source of product claims data for the mindful MATERIALS curated cloud library of environmentally preferable products.

Berkeley Analytical was invited to attend the 2017 World Business Summit of The Flooring Industry (WBSFI 2017) at HengLin China.  During the meeting, the latest environmental policy for the building industry was announced. The Chinese Government will promote energy conservation, green building material standards and sustainable production during the next five years. The goal is to increase green material use by 40% in new construction.

Our laboratory director, Raja Tannous, was invited to speak about healthy building material and testing and talk about the CARB regulation of wood based panel products.

Berkeley Analytical is an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory providing high quality chemical testing of building materials to manufacturers in the US, around the world and in China.

The State of California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has launched its new Proposition 65 Warnings Website https://www.p65warnings.ca.gov/. This database driven site is aimed at consumers and allows users to choose Prop 65 chemicals, product categories and places with potential for Prop 65 related exposures. The website is only partially populated with data at this time.

Several of the postings will be of interest to our manufacturer customers. For example, there is a page for Furniture Products. The page shows the new Prop 65 warning that becomes mandatory in one year (8/30/2018).

Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE: WY) issued a press release on July 18, 2017 acknowledging an odor problem associated with a formaldehyde-based resin used in a coating on its Flak Jacket® I-joist products manufactured after December 1, 2016. According to the company, these I-joists have been installed in about 2,200 newly constructed homes, some of which have been completed and are occupied. The company did not identify the markets where the products were sold. Recent news stories indicate that the problem is due to high formaldehyde emissions and that the joists were used by home builders in several Colorado cities and in Cincinnati, Ohio. It’s likely that new homes in other markets also are affected. Weyerhaeuser has set aside a reserve of $50-60M to cover costs related to the issue and has pledged to either remediate or replace the joists.

Berkeley Analytical successfully completed the 2016 German BAM (Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing) round robin test for VOC emissions. BAM sponsors an international inter-laboratory study of VOC emissions using small-scale chambers and Indoor Air Quality ISO Standards 16000-9 and 16000-6. BAM started the program in 2009 and conducts the ILS every two years. This year, the VOC emission source was a lacquer spiked with known amounts of eight chemicals. There were 49 participating laboratories from the EU, the USA and China. Each laboratory’s results were graded for acceptance using z-scores. Berkeley Analytical’s results for all eight VOCs received the top z-score ranking. Berkeley Analytical uses this ILS as part of its quality management system to demonstrate the validity of its test results.

The U.S. Green Building Council has officially recognized ClearChem™, Berkeley Analytical’s program for manufacturer’s self-declared product claims for low VOC emissions. ClearChem is now listed as approved for first-party claims in USGBC’s updated table of approved LEED v4 EQ Credit Low-Emitting Materials Third Party Certifications and Labels.

The LEED Steering Committee and Executive Committee of the USGBC Board of Directors have appointed Berkeley Analytical’s Laboratory Director, Raja Tannous, to serve on the Indoor Environmental Technical Advisory Group (EQ TAG). As stated by the USGBC, “The Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) are charged with providing a consistent source of technical advice to LEED committees and working groups with respect to credit and prerequisite improvement and supporting tool development; the TAGs ensure that the integrity of LEED is grounded on technical and scientific considerations of the highest quality.