DIN ISO 16000-6:2012-11

This part of DIN ISO 16000 is a test standard for the area of environmental protection and intended to be used to characterize indoor air and air of test chambers and test cells with regard to VOC, SVOC and VVOC. The standardized measuring method is important to recognize health-related indoor pollution and may have far-reaching implications as the investigation result can have considerable consequences, for example, with regard to the need of renovation or the success of renovation. Internal spaces according to this standard include, in addition to the field of private households, offices, schools, nursery schools, hospitals, event locations (such as theatres, cinemas) as well as the cabin interiors of vehicles, amongst others. Several volatile organic compounds have a high potential toxicity (they can be carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction, amongst others). This part of ISO 16000 specifies a method for determination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor air and in air sampled for the determination of the emission of VOCs from building products or materials and other products used in indoor environments using test chambers and test cells. The method uses Tenax TA^®) sorbent with subsequent thermal desorption of the compounds and mass spectrometric/gas chromatographic analysis. The method is applicable to the measurement of non-polar and slightly polar VOCs at concentrations ranging from sub-micrograms per cubic metre to several milligrams per cubic metre. Using the principles specified in this method, some very volatile compounds (VVOCs) and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) can also be analysed. A measured volume of sample air is collected from room air, an emission test chamber or an emission test cell by drawing through one (or more) sorbent tube containing Tenax TA^®) sorbent. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are retained by the sorbent tube. The compounds are subsequently analysed in the laboratory. The collected VOCs are desorbed by heat by the sorbent tube and transferred under inert carrier gas via a cold trap (sorbent trap) into a gas chromatograph. The gas chromatograph is equipped with a capillary column or columns and a flame ionization detector and/or a mass spectrometric detector. The document is directed at representatives of supervisory authorities, testing laboratories, professional associations and planning offices as well as representatives of interior designers, the furniture industry, the paint industry, the adhesives industry, the automotive industry or other sectors producing items for the interior. This standard differs from the first edition of DIN ISO 16000-6:2004-12 as follows: Annex D on the determination of VVOCs and SVOCs in conjunction with VOCs has been added - due to application of additional sorbents during sampling - and some minor modifications have been made. The International Standard has been prepared by Working Group 3 "Determination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor air" of ISO/TC 146/SC 6 "Indoor air". The secretariat of SC 6 is held by DIN; the chairmanship is also held by Germany. The responsible German committee is NA 134-04-04-01-06 AK "Spiegelgremium zu ISO/TC 146/SC 6/WG 3, WG 11 und WG 12 Messen von VOC" ("Mirror Committee for ISO/TC 146/SC 6/WG 3, WG 11 and WG 12 Measurement of VOCs").