New Group to Generate Product Emissions Data

A newly formed organization is now developing standardized testing protocols for indoor air quality related products and materials. The Product Emissions Testing Lab (PETL) Network is bringing together representatives of academia, government, and industry to achieve consensus-based procedures and to certify laboratories to test products according to those procedures. Eventually, the group hopes to provide a public database of emissions and product performance.

PETL is a nonprofit corporation affiliated with the University of Illinois. The group operates from the offices of the Illinois Technology Center in Savoy. Officially established in the fall of 1995 with $800,000 in start-up funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Technology Initiatives Program, PETL started operating in March 1996. The group aims to be self-sufficient within two years by charging royalties for the use of its testing protocols. The group has already attracted participation by many sectors of building-related private industry—designers, contractors, and product manufacturers are all represented on its Advisory Board.

Two workgroups are currently developing testing standards, one for vacuum cleaners and the second for commercial furniture. They have an aggressive schedule, with a draft of the vacuum cleaner standard to be published in August of this year and a final protocol due out by October, according to Michael Price, director of marketing and communications for PETL. Architect Dru Meadows of BSW International is on the Advisory Board. She calls PETL “one of the best organized groups” she works with, suggesting that they may be able to meet this ambitious schedule.