Identifying EWPAA Products

Recognising Emission Classes of Wood Panels

This information has been prepared to help users of wood panel products recognise the emission class of wood panel products.
Australian and New Zealand Standards When a wood panel is manufactured in accordance with an Australian and New Zealand standard (1), the wood panel must comply to a minimum set of requirements. These requirements are set forth from years of industrial knowledge and experience, and a thorough understanding of the markets expectation of product performance in Australia. Within each of the standards a classification system has been defined for emission of formaldehyde.
Formaldehyde Emission classes When purchasing wood panel products in Australia, the purchaser should ensure that the formaldehyde emission class is clearly stated. If a panel is manufactured to Australian and New Zealand standards, the panel product will be labeled with the appropriate emission class. Depending on the standard the panels are manufactured to, there may be 3 or 4 emission classifications. These have the designation E3, E2, E1 and E0. E3 is the emission class with the highest emissions and E0 is the lowest.
Product Labeling Product labeling can take several forms in panel product. It may be on the edge of the product, on the product face or only the product pack label. In all cases the emission class should appear. Eg E3, E2, E1 or E0. If consumers wish to purchase a certain emission class and cannot find the details on the product and the pack label is not available contact the store personnel for assistance or contact the EWPAA.
Product Certification As a means of assuring product conformance to the Australian and New Zealand standards, Australasian manufacturers can choose to participate in a product certification scheme. These schemes / programs are voluntary but include third party certification of the manufacturers’ quality system as well as independent testing of products to the Australian and New Zealand standards including emission testing. In this way customers can be assured of the product quality including emission levels. Products manufactured within these schemes will have a certification mark on the product label and include the emission class and the Australian standard that is being met. Some examples of the appropriate marks follow.


In addition all product certification schemes for wood panel products in Australia and New Zealand are accredited by the government appointed certification body JAS-ANZ and producers are entitled to include the JAS-ANZ logo as part of their certification logo. This additional layer of assurance is valuable as products with high emissions are not easily observed. Listings of accredited organisations and manufacturer’s certified pressed wood products can be found on the JAS-ANZ web site: www.jas-anz.com.au by searching for certified organisations.
The EWPAA will shortly release a brochure that you can download which allows consumers to easily identify which products are EWPAA certified.
(1) There are Australian and New Zealand standards for all wood panel products as follows: AS/NZS 1859.1:2004: Reconstituted wood-based panels - Specifications – Particleboard. AS/NZS 1859.2:2004: Reconstituted wood-based panels - Specifications - Dry-processed Fiberboard. AS/NZS 1860.1:2002: Particleboard flooring –Specifications. AS/NZS 2269.0: 2008: Plywood-Structural Part 0 Specifications AS/NZS 2270:2006 Plywood and blockboard for interior use. AS/NZS 2271:2004:Plywood and blockboard for exterior use AS/NZS 2272: 2006: Plywood-Marine