GRAND RAPIDS — Modifications have been made to two ANSI/BIFMA contract furniture standards. A new edition has been approved of the ANSI/BIFMA M7.1-2011 Standard Test Method for Determining VOC Emissions from Office Furniture Systems, Components and Seating, and also ANSI/BIFMA X7.1-2011 Standard for Formaldehyde and TVOC Emissions of Low-emitting Office Furniture and Seating.

Copies of the new editions, which were approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), are available from the Business & Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Assn. (BIFMA) at bifma.org. 

According to the association, the BIFMA Furniture Emissions Subcommittee incorporated several improvements into the Standard Test Methods such as: expanding the use of small scale chamber testing; defining compliance requirements for individual items; expanding use of the power-law to predict emissions from test data at 3 and 7 days to 14 days; adding examples to make applying the standards easier; to support the emissions credits in the BIFMA e3 sustainability standard; and multiple technical and analysis refinements to decrease variation and/or increase harmonization with other standards (ASTM, ISO, etc.).

Posted by Karen Koenig