Measurement method
Emission test chamber method
Also: emission test chamber, test chamber, chamber test, emission chamber
A laboratory method in which a specimen of a material is held in a chamber at a set temperature, humidity and air exchange rate, and the air leaving the chamber is analysed. The result is an emission rate or a chamber concentration at a stated age.
What it is
A chamber test answers a question a room cannot: what does this material, and only this material, release? A specimen of known area is placed in a chamber of known volume, the air is renewed at a set rate, the temperature and humidity are held steady — typically 23 °C and relative humidity 50 % — and the air leaving the chamber is sampled after a stated conditioning period. Because area, volume and air exchange are all known, the measured concentration converts to an emission rate per unit of surface and time.
That is the method’s strength and its boundary in one. It isolates the product, so two materials can be compared and an emission class can be awarded, which is what every low-emission label rests on. It does not describe a room: the loading, the air exchange, the temperature and the age of the surface are all different in a dwelling, and adhesives, coatings and cut edges added during installation are not in the chamber at all.
What the studies report
12 of 30 Findings — those with the strongest study design.
| Linked to | Effect | Population | Study design | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) | the study reads the absence of a dependence as the body regulating its own surface temperature and humidity, and contrasts it with the pronounced humidity dependence reported for skin oil on materials | three adult volunteers · test chamber | single-person chamber experiments with three volunteers at Tsinghua University: emission fluxes of the products of skin oil ozonolysis measured with a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer with and without ozone injection, while air temperature, relative humidity, bathing frequency, clothing soiling and clothing coverage were varied one at a time | F-1252 Influence of Temperature, Humidity, Personal Hygiene, and Cl… (2025) | machine |
| Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) | difference 25 | three adult volunteers · test chamber | single-person chamber experiments with three volunteers at Tsinghua University: emission fluxes of the products of skin oil ozonolysis measured with a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer with and without ozone injection, while air temperature, relative humidity, bathing frequency, clothing soiling and clothing coverage were varied one at a time | F-1253 Influence of Temperature, Humidity, Personal Hygiene, and Cl… (2025) | machine |
| Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) | the study reads the absence of an effect as skin oil re-equilibrating quickly on the body surface | three adult volunteers · test chamber | single-person chamber experiments with three volunteers at Tsinghua University: emission fluxes of the products of skin oil ozonolysis measured with a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer with and without ozone injection, while air temperature, relative humidity, bathing frequency, clothing soiling and clothing coverage were varied one at a time | F-1254 Influence of Temperature, Humidity, Personal Hygiene, and Cl… (2025) | machine |
| Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) | difference 50 | three adult volunteers · test chamber | single-person chamber experiments with three volunteers at Tsinghua University: emission fluxes of the products of skin oil ozonolysis measured with a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer with and without ozone injection, while air temperature, relative humidity, bathing frequency, clothing soiling and clothing coverage were varied one at a time | F-1255 Influence of Temperature, Humidity, Personal Hygiene, and Cl… (2025) | machine |
| Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) | a stated direction without a number; the study reads ozone as the key factor regulating these emissions | three adult volunteers · test chamber | single-person chamber experiments with three volunteers at Tsinghua University: emission fluxes of the products of skin oil ozonolysis measured with a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer with and without ozone injection, while air temperature, relative humidity, bathing frequency, clothing soiling and clothing coverage were varied one at a time | F-1256 Influence of Temperature, Humidity, Personal Hygiene, and Cl… (2025) | machine |
| Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) | the register has no slug for these individual products, so they are named here; a yield, not a room concentration | three adult volunteers · test chamber | single-person chamber experiments with three volunteers at Tsinghua University: emission fluxes of the products of skin oil ozonolysis measured with a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer with and without ozone injection, while air temperature, relative humidity, bathing frequency, clothing soiling and clothing coverage were varied one at a time | F-1257 Influence of Temperature, Humidity, Personal Hygiene, and Cl… (2025) | machine |
| Benzene | share-above 10 per 1 µg/m³ | — · test chamber | emission chamber study of twelve incense products sold in Portugal: volatile organic compounds, very volatile organic compounds and aldehydes sampled from the chamber by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry and by high performance liquid chromatography, converted through the specific emission rate into a short-term peak concentration and a worst-case time-weighted average for a room of 30 m3, and compared with air quality guideline values | F-1215 Silva et al. Indoor air quality - Assessment of dangerous substances in i… (2021) | machine |
| Benzene | share-above 12 per 0.17 µg/m³ | — · test chamber | emission chamber study of twelve incense products sold in Portugal: volatile organic compounds, very volatile organic compounds and aldehydes sampled from the chamber by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry and by high performance liquid chromatography, converted through the specific emission rate into a short-term peak concentration and a worst-case time-weighted average for a room of 30 m3, and compared with air quality guideline values | F-1216 Silva et al. Indoor air quality - Assessment of dangerous substances in i… (2021) | machine |
| Formaldehyde (CH₂O) | share-above 0 per 100 µg/m³ | — · test chamber | emission chamber study of twelve incense products sold in Portugal: volatile organic compounds, very volatile organic compounds and aldehydes sampled from the chamber by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry and by high performance liquid chromatography, converted through the specific emission rate into a short-term peak concentration and a worst-case time-weighted average for a room of 30 m3, and compared with air quality guideline values | F-1217 Silva et al. Indoor air quality - Assessment of dangerous substances in i… (2021) | machine |
| Formaldehyde (CH₂O) | share-above 10 per 100 µg/m³ | — · test chamber | emission chamber study of twelve incense products sold in Portugal: volatile organic compounds, very volatile organic compounds and aldehydes sampled from the chamber by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry and by high performance liquid chromatography, converted through the specific emission rate into a short-term peak concentration and a worst-case time-weighted average for a room of 30 m3, and compared with air quality guideline values | F-1218 Silva et al. Indoor air quality - Assessment of dangerous substances in i… (2021) | machine |
| Naphthalene | share-above 0 per 0.03 µg/m³ | — · test chamber | emission chamber study of twelve incense products sold in Portugal: volatile organic compounds, very volatile organic compounds and aldehydes sampled from the chamber by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry and by high performance liquid chromatography, converted through the specific emission rate into a short-term peak concentration and a worst-case time-weighted average for a room of 30 m3, and compared with air quality guideline values | F-1219 Silva et al. Indoor air quality - Assessment of dangerous substances in i… (2021) | machine |
| Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) | a stated direction without a number; the sentence also says the mixture changes, naming alkanes, alcohols, ketones, benzenes, alkenes, aldehydes, esters and naphthalene | — · car cabin | measurement study of vehicle interior air quality in new vehicles of three brands in China, sampled under the Chinese method standard HJ/T 400-2007: each vehicle tested statically in an environment test chamber at 25 degrees Celsius and again in sunshine on a windless summer day, and then under driving conditions, with total volatile organic compounds and eight confirmed compounds measured by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry and by high performance liquid chromatography | F-1229 Guo et al. Evaluation of Typical Volatile Organic Compounds Levels in N… (2022) | machine |
Each row is one Finding — a sentence as printed in one study, recorded with its page in the Coridum Knowledge Base. Follow the Finding number for the exact wording and the citation. Checked says who verified the row: machine means every automatic check passed and the surrounding text was read; person means someone read the sentence in the document. Rows are re-checked by a person over time. The studies are curated in the Coridum Knowledge Base; the reading of them together is a Claim, shown separately.
Cite this page
Coridum Research. Emission test chamber method. Coridum Knowledge G-0111, 16 September 2026. https://coridum.com/k/G-0111/