Adhesives commonly react with oxygen at low temperatures, which leads to a slow break down of polymer chains. The breakdown of polymer chains is often undetectable until the adhesive has reached a critical point where the stability of remainder of the adhesive rapidly degrades. High temperature accelerated testing often cannot be used to estimate stability in oxygen environments since high temperatures often lead to new reaction pathways that would not typically exist at the temperature the adhesives would be used.
Moisture sensitivity accelerated tests involve either increased temperatures or increased surface area of a sample. The surface area of samples is increased by applying adhesives to a single surface rather than placing it between two surfaces and placing the sample in a water bath.