LOS ANGELES, March 8, 2022 — According to the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, there are small amounts of urea-formaldehyde in nearly all homes. With millions of newly manufactured wood products, such as cabinets, gaming desks, and children’s furniture sold each year, the likelihood is high they may contain higher amounts of this potentially harmful product.
Urea-formaldehyde (UF) is used in glues that hold many of these materials together. This is especially concerning for purchasers of online products.
Millions of homes are exposed to harmful chemicals. Learn more about the lack of regulation in the eCommerce industry.
Traditional Brick and Mortar Stores have compliance teams that certify furniture to ensure compliance with federal standards whereas most online retailers do not. High amounts of this material (UF) can irritate eyes, nose, throat, and skin tissues. It can also increase breathing problems for people with health conditions like asthma and COPD. These health effects can happen to anyone, but children and older adults are more likely to have these symptoms.
You can protect your family by choosing home products with low or no formaldehyde. Look for tags on furniture, wood cabinetry, or flooring that show they are made without urea-formaldehyde (UF) glues. Pressed-wood products should be labeled that they meet ultra-low emitting formaldehyde (ULEF) or no added formaldehyde (NAF) requirements. Products labeled “No VOC/Low VOC” (volatile organic compound) would be best.
Michael Whaley is the Vice President of Eureka Ergonomic, a major ecommerce furniture retailer. He offers these words of warning to online consumers, “Some online sellers are not very concerned about the chemicals in products they offer. In our own experience of purchasing competitors’ products, using third-party testing, we’ve seen many of the products sold by online furniture manufacturers do not meet the California Prop 65 guidelines. Some of the testing has come back showing up to 300x’s over the limits for heavy metals.”
Eureka Ergonomic has a simple way to verify that your product is not harmful; Look under your desk or somewhere on your furniture, there should be a CARB compliance label attached like Eureka’s.
Homeowners should consider buying composite wood products that are certified as compliant with CARB’s Airborne Toxic Control Measure to Reduce Formaldehyde Emissions from Composite Wood Products. These standards include limits on formaldehyde emissions.
Even more specifically they should be compliant with the American National Standards Institute and the Hardwood Plywood and Veneer Association: ANSI/HPVA HP-1-2009 (for hardwood plywood), ANSI A208.1-2009 (for particleboard), or ANSI A208.2-2009 (for medium-density fiberboard).
This article was shared with Prittle Prattle News as a Press Release by PRNewswire.
