Vehicle Indoor Air Quality Testing and Certification

Overview

Since the early 2000s, research¹ has demonstrated that vehicle indoor air contains volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from interior components, such as plastics, fabrics and adhesives. In reality, that “new car smell” is chemicals emitting from interior components and it can cause health effects such as headaches, sore throat, nausea and drowsiness. And while emissions can taper off after the first several weeks after a product is manufactured, cars pose a challenge because interiors can heat up during warm weather and chemicals can continue emitting long after a vehicle is no longer considered new. It is critical to gain an understanding of the potential impact of VOC emissions during the research and development phase. Our chemical emissions testing utilizes advanced technology to detect and measure emissions emanating from products and components and determine their impacts on human health.

Benefits

We can help you understand the chemical emissions potential of their vehicle interiors to:

• Determine if chemical emissions from interiors pose a health risk for buyers
• Avoid buyer complaints due to odor
• Meet a variety of international requirements for vehicle indoor air quality including those in Japan, Korea and China

We can test to a variety of test global test methods. UL Solutions testing follows International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 12219 framework with the flexibility to meet regional and specific original equipment manufacturers (OEM) requirements

• ISO 12219-1:2012 – Whole vehicle test chamber
• ISO 12219-2:2012 – Bag method
• ISO 12219-3:2012 – Micro-scale chamber method
• ISO 12219-4:2012 – Small chamber method

Why UL Solutions

We are a recognized global leader in chemical emissions testing, with more than 25 years of product emissions testing experience and have chemical emissions testing capacity around the globe.

We can work with OEMs to adapt test methods to their unique needs and can test to a wide range of methods uniquely suited for vehicles.