Task Group on Toxicology
Draft Meeting Summary
June 11, 2012
This document is part of the NSF International and Underwriters Laboratory process and is for NSF/UL
Committee uses only. It shall not be reproduced, or circulated, or quoted, in whole or in part, outside of
NSF/UL activities, except with the approval of NSF/UL.
Toxicology Task Group Chairs:
Ann Marie Gebhart (ToxServices LLC) & Al Hodgson (Berkeley Analytical).
NSF/UL Standards Development Staff:
Tim Corder (UL), Dan Ryan (UL), Maureen Sertich (NSF)
Participants:
Kari Allen (Steelcase), Kent Carlson (CPSC), Randy Carter (Steelcase), Siying Chen (Masco
Corporation), Wenhao Chen (California Department of Public Health), Amy Costello (Armstrong), Bill
Freeman (Resilient Floor Covering Institute), John Hadley (Owens Corning), Bill Hoffman (UL), Tom Lent
(Healthy Building Network), Ann Mason (American Chemistry Council), Stephany Mason (UL), Alex Mlsna
(Kimball), Reinhard Oppl (Eurofins), Scott Randall (NSF), Bob Schmitter (MAS) for Martin Bennett,
Deborah Schoen (Health Canada), Timothy Serie (American Coatings Association) & Stan Wolfersberger
(Owens Corning).
Agenda
1) Following up to previous meeting
a. Composite list of VOCs derived from three programs:
i. NRCC Material Emission Database for Target VOCs
ii. UL AQS Frequently occurring VOCs emitted by office furniture
iii. CA Air Resources Board 2005 Architectural Coatings Survey
b. Other sources of indoor VOC data
c. Building investigations – examples
d. Product emission studies – examples
e. Commercial product testing laboratories
2) Summary of chronic, non-cancer exposure guidelines for identified VOCs – OEHHA, U.S. EPA,
ATSDR
3) Next Steps
a. Produce strawman draft of chronic, non-cancer acceptance criteria for product VOC
emissions
Discussion
M. Sertich took roll call and read the anti-trust statement.
The draft meeting summary for the April 30th meeting was sent for approval to the members of the Task
Group and one comment was received on May 25th. D. Schoen had an additional comment that was
corrected in the meeting summary.
Al Hodgson provided an overview of the presentations from last several meetings of this task group and
shared a document with the group (Review of Compounds & Criteria_Jun1112.pdf).
Based on the presentations, A. Hodgson compiled a list of chemicals in an excel spreadsheet
(ProductVOCEmission_Summary_Jun0912.xls). The first tab (“VOCTargetList-Base”) contains the listing
from 3 sources (Greenguard test method, CARB Paint Study, and the NRC database). The list contains
139 different VOCs. Does this list contain VOCs that frequently occur in different sources?
There was a report (“Chemical Emissions of Residential Materials and Products: Review of Available
Information” (2010)) out of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that looked at peer reviewed literature
about emissions that may occur in residences and was focused on the level of ventilation required to
maintain a healthy environment. Tables 3 and 4 in that report identified chemicals from their list of peer
reviewed studies. This report is shared on the NSF NOW site for this Task Group.
There was another study of chemicals emitted from flooring products conducted by the Public Health
Institute (2010): “Tire-Derived Rubber Flooring Chemical Emissions Study: Laboratory Study Report.”
Refer to the presentation slides for specific study parameters. They reported the Qualitative VOCs results
in Tables 8 & 9 of the report. A. Hodgson chose VOCs with the 14-day study results because that was the
same length of time in the CDPH study.
An additional study was referenced in the flooring study listed above: Wilke, et al. “VOC and SVOC
emissions from adhesives, floor coverings and complete floor structures” (2004). In Europe, the time point
of interest is typically 28 days. A. Hodgson looked at both resilient flooring (Table 2 of report)_and
carpeting (Table 3 of the report) results and chose chemicals that were detected at 2 mg/cubic meter or
higher which is the limit in the CDPH study and occurred in 2 or more samples. There weren’t many
chemicals that were not included in the first tab of the excel file.
On the second tab (“FlooringEmissionStudies”) of the excel file, 5 additional chemicals were added based
on the 2 flooring studies listed above and are highlighted in pink.
There are many studies of emissions but there aren’t many comprehensive studies that cover a wide
variety of uses. Most are focused on a specific objective and vary widely. It is difficult to compile that is
consistent from published literature. Many studies focus on a specific set of chemicals defined at the
beginning of the study and do not address chemicals that may be emitted outside of the scope of their
study objectives.
Another source of information is from building studies where the emissions are coming from a variety of
sources including building products and furnishings. The Choi et al. “Sources of Propylene Glycol and
Glycol Ethers in Air at Home” (2010) study looked at the presence of VOCs emitted from homes and a
database was developed. The VOCs were reported as toluene equivalents greater or equal to 0.1 ppb. A.
Hodgson selected chemicals in the table of VOCs detected in air with a 5% detection frequency or greater
(equaled about 20 homes) to include in the chemical list for the purpose of discussion in this group.
In 2006 and 2007, there was a study conducted in California called the California New Homes Study and
was funded by the California Energy Commission and the California Air Resources Board to look at the
indoor air quality and ventilation in homes built to California 24 code, the energy code at the time. This
study looked at ventilation rates and took comparative samples of indoor and outdoor air. A subsequent
study was done in 2012 based on the same parameters. A complete list of chemicals is not available at
this point in time. A large source of emissions in both of these studies is from the evaporation of gasoline
from cars parked in garages. Another apparent source was associated with the use of air fresheners. This
is being presented at the Healthy Buildings Conference and the paper will be posted to the Task Group
after that meeting.
Al Hodgson excluded hydrocarbons, chemicals associated with air fresheners, compounds that are
oxidation products and refrigerants and came up with a list of 69 frequently occurring VOCs. There are 9
chemicals that are showing up in house samples that could potentially be coming from product sources.
This list is on the third tab of the excel file (“ResidentialInvestigations”).
The summary of this exercise is an excel list of 153 VOCs which is listed in the fourth tab of the excel
spreadsheet (“VOCTargetList-Expanded”). Health hazard assessments conducted before 2000 were
excluded. That was the year that the California Department of Public Health published their first list of
chemicals and the EPA has done additional studies since 2000. In this table, green highlighting rows are
the chemicals that have a current OEHHA CREL; the orange highlighting show chemicals where there
are no OEHHA guidelines but have guidelines in the USEPA IRIS and ATSDR Chronic MRLs; blue
highlighting shows chemicals that have guidelines that are under development.
B. Freeman asked a question about the different tables. Are the 153 chemicals just from residence
studies or from specific building material studies? The original list of chemicals came from the VOC
emissions studies from NRC Canada and Air Quality Sciences and those that are used in paints and
coatings. Additional chemicals were added from building emission studies where the source of the
emissions is not known but it can be assumed that they come from product emissions.
Al Hodgson questioned the group about whether a table like this should be included in the standard as an
Appendix or as a related document. D. Schoen suggested looking at data from a Canadian residential
study to make sure that compounds measured in Canadian homes match the data measured in the other
home studies. In the future, laboratories may be able to add additional chemicals based on the results of
the tests of products.
As the standard moves forward, it will be revised at a determined frequency. It would be preferable to
make the list of chemicals current. Determining a list of chemicals and a methodology for updating the
chemicals will be important to update the list. There are many chemicals that do not have guidance and
the toxicologists in the group were asked whether any of these chemicals that cause concern at low
levels. The EPA has published the Federal Registry which gives a schedule for updating specific
chemicals and describes the process for suggesting additional chemicals to be added to their list for
future consideration.
B. Freeman asked about the list that shows only 27 different chemicals that have CRELs developed by
OEHHA. Does that mean the difference between the total number of CRELs developed by OEHHA (~75
chemicals) and the list of chemicals mean that all the chemicals that are found in homes are not the ones
with CRELs developed? That is one of the reasons but there is no evidence that the chemicals in the list
are directly associated with emissions from building products. There are chemicals on the EPA list that
are not VOCs so they would be excluded from the scope of this exercise. A. Hodgson guesses that
OEHHA will add additional chemicals that will be up to ~40 chemicals from this list of 153 chemicals.
There was a comment about comparing this list to the list that was recently generated by the European
Commission that addressed building materials specifically. It looked at a list of ~100 VOCs commonly
emitted from building products and other products used indoors. A copy is not available to share with the
group yet.
Ann Marie Gebhardt discussed the next steps for this Task Group.
Suggested Next Steps:

Decide if want to include a product emissions VOC list
If yes, what are the procedures for updating the list?

Create strawman draft for chronic non-cancer guidelines
Which guidelines to select?
How to incorporate newly developed guidelines?
Action Items
 D. Schoen to provide study of Canadian residential emissions (available upon request)
 Obtain a copy of the ~100 chemicals published by the EU
 A. Hodgson and A. Gebhardt to prepare a strawman document
o Toxicologists review for clarity and making the right points
o Task Group Review of the document – submit comments and discuss the draft language