Indoor Air Emissions from Office Equipment: Test Method Development and Pollution Prevention Opportunities

The report describes development and evaluation of a large chamber test method for measuring emissions from dry-process photocopiers. Application of the test method will lead to a better understanding of emissions from office equipment and to the development of lower emitting machines. Challenges and complications encountered in developing and implementing the test method include: heat generation, which can cause large increases in chamber temperature; finite paper supplies for photocopiers, which limit test duration; toner off-gassing between tests, or toner carryover if different types of toner are tested; varying power requirements that may require changes in chamber electrical supply; and remote starting of the machines, which is necessary to maintain chamber integrity. The test method was evaluated in two phases. Phase I was a single laboratory evaluation at Research Triangle Institute (RTI) using four, mid-range, dry-process photocopiers. Phase I results indicate that the test method provides acceptable performance for characterizing emissions, adequately identifies differences in emissions between machines both in compounds emitted and their emission rates, and is capable of measuring both intraand inter-machine variability in emissions. For Phase I, the compounds with the highest emission rates from the four different machines tested are: ethylbenzene (28,000 μg/hour), m,p-xylenes (29,000 μg/hour), o-xylene (17,000 μg/hour), 2-ethyl-1-hexanol (14,000 μg/ hour), and styrene (12,000 μg/hour). AlIndoor Air Emissions from Office Equipment: Test Method Development and Pollution Prevention Opportunities