California enacts tough formaldehyde limits
Rule will affect plywood, particleboard, MDF
Jeff Linville -- Furniture Today, May 9, 2007
SACRAMENTO — California regulators have enacted tighter restrictions on formaldehyde gas seeping out of composite wood products like plywood, particleboard and medium-density fiberboard.
At a recent hearing, the California Air Resources Board adopted a new Air Toxic Control Measure because of the health concerns of formaldehyde. The rule affects not only the furniture industry, but homebuilders, kitchen cabinetmakers, flooring companies and door manufacturers.
The control measure first came up for discussion last summer. Executives of furniture manufacturers, including Los Angeles-based Sandberg Furniture, voiced their concerns. The regulations were enacted on April 26.
“Today’s action will bring California in line with Europe and Japan in Phase 1,” board Chairman Robert Sawyer said at the time, “and will make us the world leader when we implement Phase 2 in 2012. This measure will substantially reduce public exposure to formaldehyde, related asthma attacks and the risk of getting cancer.”
Phase 1 standards — most of which will take effect Jan. 1, 2009 — will have little impact on raw materials costs, according to industry sources. But Phase 2 standards will have greater effects.
The California Air Resource Board estimated that Phase 1 would raise the cost of a 4x8 sheet of plywood by less than 20 cents and a sheet of particleboard or MDF by about $1. However, Phase 2 will raise the price of particleboard by $3 to $5 and plywood and MDF by $4 to $6.
For a 2,000-square-foot home, CARB estimated that installing cabinets, countertops, shelves and moldings with compliant materials would raise the materials cost by about $400.
The tighter restrictions were enacted after the CARB evaluated the risk of formaldehyde exposure throughout a person’s life. Aside from causing sinus irritation and itchy eyes, the chemical poses a risk of cancer, regulators said. The board said research varies in calculating the dangers, but appears to show that for every million residents there are 86 to 231 cancer cases caused by formaldehyde.
When Phase 2 is in place, the board predicts there will be 500 fewer tons of formaldehyde released into the air every year.
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