TÜV warns of pollutants in school furniture

TÜV test: Risk of dangerous gases from school furniture

03/24/2015

The fact that students often complain of headaches or nausea in class may be related to new school furniture. Because these sometimes release toxic gases into the air, in some cases far above the applicable limits. This has now been demonstrated by a test by TÜV Rheinland.

Toxic gases can pollute classrooms
The reason that students often complain of headaches or nausea in the classroom is sometimes in the air. According to a message from the dpa news agency, TÜV Rheinland warns that toxic gases can pollute the classrooms. According to the experts, the values ​​for gases escaping from paints, varnishes, adhesives, chairs or tables have in some cases exceeded the recommendations of the Federal Environmental Agency many times over.

Conventional substances versus pollutant-tested materials
The testers wanted to know how pollutant levels differ from unchecked furniture and construction products to tested substances. For this they set up two identical classrooms at the TÜV site in Cologne. One with conventional materials from the hardware store and the other with pollutant-tested materials. Then the technicians made air measurements in different phases. The Federal Environment Agency will be more than three milligrams „Volatile organic compounds“ classified as hazardous for each cubic meter of air.

Large part of the gases from new pieces of furniture
However, the testers discovered in indoor air with unchecked products about 27 times this value. „For students, such high levels are hazardous to health“, explained Kerstin Etzenbach-Effers, chemistry expert at the consumer center NRW. Solvents irritate the respiratory tract, cause headaches and cause discomfort. For asthmatics in particular, newly renovated classrooms are becoming a torment. As the business field manager for hazardous substances at TÜV Rheinland, Walter Dormagen, explained, the investigations revealed that a large proportion of the gases escaped from new pieces of furniture.

Higher costs for low-emission products
The furniture industry, however, sees the responsibility in the schools. The managing director of the German Gütegemeinschaft Möbel (DGM), Jochen Winning, said: „For renovations or new construction, the pollutant emissions of the products hardly play a role in the tenders.“ If the schools want to refit their rooms, completely different things are needed. So surfaces of tables would have to be particularly durable and durable, chairs height adjustable and non-tilting. Although the demand for quality is rising among consumers, low-emission products are associated with significantly higher costs.

Regular airing volatilizes the pollutants
But is the situation alarming? The Verbraucherzentrale NRW points out that the load on indoor air decreases over time. The substances evaporate by regular ventilation gradually and the values ​​reach a lower level after half a year. This is not only true at school. Airing helps against harmful substances in living spaces: This was pointed out a few months ago by experts from the Federal Environmental Agency. Especially „immediately after construction and extensive renovations“, but also when using unsuitable materials, the concentration of hazardous compounds can increase so that serious health impairments threaten. In the schools, according to the testers, the cleaning crews are a problem that cleans the classrooms after school. Because with their cleaning agents they bring just those solvents back into the rooms that you actually wanted to banish by airing. (Ad)