Bona has been awarded a licence to label eight of its waterborne finishes with the EMICODE EC1 trademark which classifies them as ‘very low emission’ products. Bona’s lacquers are the first in the industry to receive the EMICODE EC1 licence from GEV, the German based association for the control of emissions in products for flooring installation, adhesives and building materials. Several of the company’s adhesives received the classification in 1997.
Bona introduced waterborne finishes in 1979 pioneering the move away from solvent based products. Today Bona’s waterborne finishes contain 100g/1 or less non-hazardous solvents. All Bona formulations are designed to avoid unnecessary emissions and to contribute to a healthier environment for contractors and floor owners.
“We’ve been working continuously over several decades to improve the ‘green’ aspects of our products,” said Nils Erik Persson, senior vice president R&D at Bona. “this has always been the key focus of Bona’s research and development. The air quality in rooms where the floor is finished with our products is very important to us. With the EMICODE EC1 trademark on our finishes we can clearly demonstrate the health advantages for both the home or building owner as well as for the contractors installing the product. All Bona EC1 certified products contain below 8% solvents.”
GEV was established to safeguard and promote the general economic and idealistic interests of producers of chemical flooring installation products and building materials in the field of occupational, environmental and consumer protection. It carries out measures to control, classify and label such products in respect of their emission behaviour. The EMICODE classification was initially developed to classify adhesives but has developed to classify adhesives but has developed over the years to classify the emission properties of a range of building products. Today the trademark can be applied to adhesives, primers, levelling compounds, tile and joint mortars, flat underlays, sealants and – since July 2009 – wood floor finishes.
Thomas Brokamp, VP and director of Bona’s fastenings division has more than 10 years of experience with adhesive emission measurements. He was chairman of the working group that led to the inclusion of finishes in the EMICODE system. He said: “After a year of meetings and discussions, the EMICODE for parquet finishes was established. This will be a trigger for further development of the total industry, as the defined requirements are demanding (less than 10% solvents in the finish, for EC1 emission after 28 days). And further demands are in the pipeline – as from July 2011 the total allowed solvent content will be just 8%. All Bona products which are licensed to use the EMICODE EC1 trademark already fulfil the 2011 requirements.”
The Bona products which are EMICODE EC1 or ECIR licensed as very low emission formulations are set out in the table below. The ‘R’ classification applies to products that are very low in emissions but require safety provisions during their application, in other words products which are labelled as hazardous substances or on which special conditions for safe use are imposed
Real Oak Floors is proud to be an official retailer of Bona products
Source : the flooring magazine November 2009Popularity: 8% [?]
