New Testing Service for Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
Convex Plastics, December 1st, 2010
Click here for larger image. This sample graph generated by Convex’s Gas Chromatograph shows a variety of solvents that can be used and detected in various printing inks. The area under each of these peaks is used to quantitate the amount of solvent present in the sample. The peaks labelled 3.954 and 1.822 represent Toluene and MEK respectively, harmful offensive smelling solvents that can be present in imported film.
The new service was launched after Convex was approached by several companies wanting independent testing for retained solvents in their imported packaging, which smelt strongly of petroleum. Convex helped several faulty product claims get settled by identifying the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the film with their gas chromatograph, which separates out each solvent and calculates how much is present in the film.
Industry standards in New Zealand and most other developed nations (including Europe and the United States) require printing solvents to be 30 mg/m2 or less as a total of all solvents present.
Convex Technical Manager Andrew Sheerin says, “Some of the imported films we’ve tested have had more than 40 times the acceptable level of printing solvents in them, which is a huge concern – especially for the companies who purchased those films to pack food. At those quantities the strong solvent odour would have tainted the packaged product and most likely generated customer complaints and even a product recall.”
As well as potentially resulting in a loss of sales and reputation for the company that imported the film, high levels of VOCs can detrimentally affect the health of the end consumer.
Two VOC’s that Convex has detected in high quantities in imported packaging are methyl ethyl keton (MEK) and Toluene. Toluene is an aromatic hydrocarbon that is 25 times more reactive than benzene, and has numerous proven detrimental health effects.
Andrew says, “It’s really important to carry out routine VOC testing on packaging manufactured in countries where manufacturing and environmental standards are a lot less strict than ours.”
Convex Managing Director Owen Embling says, “After assisting several companies recover from some disappointing importing experiences, we decided to offer our testing service to any company wanting to evaluate imported film, especially for food grade applications.”