Industrially manufactured materials surrounding us today may pose a health risk, by releasing substances that are absorbed via the skin, inhaled, or ingested after migrating into food or beverages from packaging or into our drinking water from pipes. Substances in question include plasticizers and other additives from plastics, solvents from paints and glues, flame retardants from electrical appliances, or fungicides from construction materials. To minimize risk, some statutory threshold values apply for material emissions, and for migration from packaging, among many others. 
Evaluation of air quality with regard to emissions of volatile or semi-volatile organic chemicals from materials used in indoor areas, vehicles or at workplaces is mainly performed for health and safety reasons. As the air quality of indoor areas depends on the emissions of the objects within them and the construction materials used, in addition to the air itself, emissions from objects present in the space such as furniture, paints, carpets etc. are measured to evaluate potential air quality problems. GERSTEL thermal desorption systems transfer the analytes from air samples collected on sorbent tubes to the GC-MS analysis system without loss or discrimination for the most accurate results. These air samples could be taken either directly in the interior of the area or from a component test chamber. Alternatively, or additionally, construction materials could be checked by means of thermal extraction for potential emissions with the same thermal desorption systems. 
In the case of formaldehyde, dinitrophenylhydrazine DNPH derivatization is elegantly performed by sampling air onto DNPH cartridges. The process of eluting aldehydes and ketones collected from air samples is automated using the GERSTEL Multipurpose Sampler (MPS). The entire process including introduction to the HPLC system, as well as chromatography and detection, is controlled in a unified and simple manner. Automation has resulted in improved accuracy and reproducibility.
Standard methods are used throughout Analytical Chemistry. International standards, like those available from ASTM, DIN, ISO, EN, VDA, AOAC, and others, are helpful in making sure that analytical chemists analyze and determine the same things in the same ways.  Without standards, comparing data between labs could be difficult or impossible.  The use of a standard is an ‘agreement’ to generate analytical results in the same way as other laboratories. The quality of the data generated using a method, and the success of individual laboratories in implementing it, is verified by interlaboratory round robin tests. 

GERSTEL has been involved in Air Quality standards for ten years, with scientists serving in various standards organizations, sometimes occupying key roles such as subcommittee chairperson or vice-chair.  We bring what we have learned from our customers and from GERSTEL scientists to meetings of these organizations and feed it into the standards-making process.  This ensures that relevant needs are reflected in new or revised standards, and for our part that GERSTEL instrumentation is compatible with current standards.  In air quality, we are compatible with a number of established international standards, such as ISO 16000-6, VDA-278, and US EPA’s TO-17 method; our leadership in the standards communities in this area guarantees our compatibility.

GERSTEL is involved in standards in many other areas too, including drinking water safety, microplastics in water and in the environment, and PFAS in both air and water as the only company that makes instruments for both. Want to learn more?  Or would you like to contribute to these communities directly?  Please contact us, we’d love to connect you!  Until then, keep an eye out for us at standardization meetings.