GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / AGILITYPR.NEWS / November 11, 2019 / SGS in Vietnam’s formaldehyde emission testing services for composite wood products have received a boost following US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board – Airborne Toxic Control Measure approval as a Third Party Certifier (TPC), the first in the country.

At the same time, the International Accreditation Service (IAS) has also accredited SGS as an EPA-recognized Accreditation Body (AB) for ISO/IEC 17065 and ISO/IEC 17025, based on the US EPA’s Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Title VI regulation requirements. This includes formaldehyde emission standards for composite wood products as per EPA TSCA Title VI (40 CFR Part 770) and CARB ATCM (title 17, California Code of Regulations, section 93120).

Mr. Daster Lai, SGS Vietnam Ltd., CRS Director, said: “With our commitment to excellence, we are thrilled to have met the EPA TSCA Title VI and CARB ATCM accreditation requirements ahead of the regulation’s timeline. Most importantly, this enables us to improve and increase the services we offer to clients in the composite wood product sector.”

As an EPA-recognized TPC, SGS provides a wide variety of international services to ensure manufacturers and suppliers gain peace of mind in complying with the Act and ATCM.

These include, but are not limited to:

• Consultancy on how the Act and ATCM applies to composite wood products
• Certification of panel manufacturers (mills), including:

1. Gap assessments
2. Setting up an in-house lab and quality control system
3. Correlation testing between factory/ in-house laboratory and SGS test lab (Secondary test method: ASTM D6007; In-house quality control test methods: ASTM D5582 and others)
4. Quality control personnel

• Factory inspection services
• Correct labeling procedures
• Documentation and record keeping

Panel manufacturers, fabricators, distributors, importers and retailers in Vietnam targeting the US composite wood product market can choose SGS to demonstrate their products’ compliance to the US Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act and CARB ATCM, which sets formaldehyde emission standards for:

• Hardwood plywood composite core or veneer core (HWPW-CC or VC)
• Particleboard (PB)
• Medium-density fiberboard (MDF)

The Act also specifies formaldehyde emission standards for:

• Third-party certification programs
• Incentives for products manufactured from ultra-low emitting formaldehyde resins (ULEF)
• No added-formaldehyde-based resins (NAF)
• Product labeling
• Accreditation Bodies (ABs)
• Third-Party Certifiers (TPCs)

For more information, please contact:

Ms. Van Ung

Hardline Lab Manager

Consumer and Retail (CRS) SGS Vietnam

Email: crs.media@sgs.com

http://www.sgs.com/carb

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