Certification of formaldehyde-emitting building materials for the Japanese market

 

Climate chamber methods for determination of formaldehyde are carried out according to Japanese method JIS A 1901, European standard prEN 717-1.

The Japanese building code "Building Standard Law" stated on 1 July 2003 that all building materials used indoors must emit only low levels of formaldehyde, including all products that contain glued components, and must be tested for formaldehyde emissions. MLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport) has developed regulations, rules and a number of product adapted standards (JIS) according to which the products must be tested and certified.



Documentation demonstrating the Japanese ministry’s approval and certification of the product must be shown at the final inspection of the building. Until recently, European exporting companies had to contact agencies or expensive sales companies in Japan in order to get an application for export and to send material to Japan for test and certification. Today, the exporting companies can instead turn to SP, which will deal with the whole application process for getting an approval for export to the Japanese market. The Japanese test methods that are applied are the Japanese desiccator's method or the small-scale chamber method. The product standards show which method and which requirements will apply. For the desiccator's method, a result of less than 0.3 mg formaldehyde per litre is required for free use (F****) of the product, and for the small-scale chamber method, an emission rate of less than 5 μg/(m2x h).

Contact in Japan:

Tokyo, Japan
Masayo Mori
Tel & Fax: + 81 3 3823 5854
Mob.tel: + 81 90 9855 6593
E-mail: masayo.mori@sp.se