Last week, the Canadian Standards Association published a voluntary formaldehyde emissions standard. It is based on the California Air Resources Board’s Airborne Toxic Control Measures standard (CARB), but has a few key differences.
Last week, the Canadian Standards Association published a voluntary formaldehyde emissions standard. It is based on the California Air Resources Board’s Airborne Toxic Control Measures standard (CARB), but has a few key differences.
CAN/CSA-O160-16 regulates the formaldehyde emissions of the same four composite wood products covered by CARB: MDF, tMDF, plywood and particleboard. However, it does not require or even permit “downstream” products, like wood flooring, to display a compliance label for using these four certified composite wood products in manufacturing.
While the standard currently regulates only formaldehyde, the Canadian Standards Association hopes to eventually include a larger range of VOCs, according to HF Green Blogger Elizabeth Baldwin, the National Wood Flooring Association representative on the CSA committee developing the standard.
“[T]hey decided to take things in bite-sized chunks,” Baldwin wrote in November.
The standard is also voluntary at this time. If the Canadian government were to adopt the standard in the future, then it would become mandatory.
