Page 24 - Climate Control News Magazine August 2019

Indoor Air Quality
Warning about flame retardants in carpets
GOOD INDOOR QUALITY isn’t just about ventilation, a myriad of factors make a difference including light and noise, humidity, CO2, and chemical contaminants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Knowing what chemicals there are in furni- ture, bedding, paint, and other products can re- duce the presence of VOCs.
However, an Australian carpet manufacturer believes that it isn't just about VOCs anymore and there needs to be more independent testing to assess the dangers of synthetic carpets.
He has even called for a ban on the manufac- ture and sale of nylon pile and recycled synthetic carpets in Australia and New Zealand.
Greg Galt, managing director of Supertuft, be- lieves the chemicals used in the making of nylon and other synthetic carpets present a substan- tial risk to human health and the environment.
Galt has written to the Carpet Institute of Australia and about 1000 architects, interior de- signers and retailers nationwide to raise aware- ness about these dangers.
He points to a research paper titled Eliminat- ing Toxics in Carpet: Lessons for the Future of Recycling, published by the US-based Healthy Building Network which highlights the dangers of toxic flame retardants in carpets.
The report states: “Halogenated flame retard- ants used in carpet which contain chlorine or bromine are among the chemical industry’s most notorious products. They are linked to hy- peractivity, learning disabilities, reproductive harm and cancer,” according to the report.
A carpet with a woollen pile requires no flame retardant or stain-resist chemicals.
A century of air filtration
Landing page for airfiltration. mann- hummel.com
It also warns of the dangers of ‘halogenated and oganophosphate flame retardants’ to the en- vironment.
“Flame retardants can be emitted from carpet into dust and the air both during use and from operations that recycle and dispose of carpet waste,” the report said.
The Carpet Institute of Australia web site states that: “With good room ventilation, new carpet VOC emissions will drop below most in- door air quality criteria within a few days.”
But Galt said his main concern isn't relat- ed to VOCs.
“It is the toxic fire retardants and the stain resist treatments that I believe are reasons to ban the use of nylon pile carpet. It is hard to assess how harmful the chemicals given-off by a particular nylon pile carpet may be,” he said.
There is no independent testing of pile fibre for chemical content and toxicity of fire retardant and stain resist chemicals in Australia and New Zealand.
A carpet with a woollen pile requires no flame retardant or stain-resist chemicals. Wool is naturally flame resistant, is a renewa- ble resource and bio-degradable once the product life has expired.
THE UPDATED AIR filtration website from MANN+HUMMEL has gone live.
It is the central information platform for all fil- tration solutions from MANN+HUMMEL for clean air in commercially used buildings, in in- dustry, outdoors or indoors, traditional or digital.
The website is available as before at the address airfiltration.mann-hummel.com but with many new features, according to the company's market- ing communications director, Kathrin Sauter.
"The acquisition of the companies Vokes Air in 2014 and JACK Filter in 2017 has enabled MANN+HUMMEL to be active in the area of air filtration for a number of years and therefore has almost 100 years of filtration expertise in the mar- ket segments for HVAC, cleanroom, industrial, power generation and operating theatres,” she said.
In August 2018 the company extended its ac- tivities to North America with the acquisition of Tri-Dim and in future will also offer an extensive range of filtration solutions for clean air in Asia.
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