by Web Editor | Jun 10, 2016 | News
In a move that will mandate required federal safety assessments of chemicals found in everyday products from laundry detergent to toys, a June 7 U.S. Senate vote sends legislation to President Barack Obama for signature.
The president is expected within days to sign the measure, which marks Congress’s first major overhaul of a federal pollution control statute in a decade. The legislation will fundamentally change U.S. regulation of the products of the chemical industry, from commodity substances that have been in use for decades to novel commercial compounds discovered and developed by research chemists.
“Most Americans believe that when they buy a product at the hardware store or the grocery store, that product has been tested and determined to be safe. But that isn’t the case,” said Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), who championed the legislation.
Udall says that residents of the U.S. are exposed to hundreds of commercially produced chemicals. “We carry them around with us in our bodies, even before we’re born. Some are known carcinogens; others are highly toxic. But we don’t know the full extent of how they affect us because they have never been tested.”
The measure mandates that the EPA assess the safety of chemicals in commerce. It also gives EPA new authority to require chemical manufacturers to test their products for possible risks to human health and the environment. Currently, EPA must document that a substance may pose a risk before it can demand that chemical makers conduct toxicity or exposure tests.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/landmark-chemical-safety-legislation-passes-congress?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news
by Web Editor | Feb 24, 2016 | News
Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers, Inc. (AHMI), promoting the advantages of formaldehyde-free real, solid wood to public, are contrasting its natural qualities with the unsafe laminate flooring that had gotten Lumber Liquidators into trouble with consumers.
“Discount flooring companies selling imported laminate floors have been providing customers with products that can carry seven to twenty times the base amount of carcinogenic formaldehyde allowed by the EPA,” says the AHMI. “At these levels, formaldehyde secretes from the flooring and into the home’s air, becoming a high-level health risk, especially for children and pets who are most susceptible to its effects. Carcinogenic formaldehyde found in artificial wood has been linked to lung and nasal cancer, nausea, asthma, and other severe respiratory issues.”
Wood industry trade groups, including furniture and cabinetry makers, have been trying to separate their goods from the products made in China that contained high levels of formaldehyde. The Kitchen Cabinet Makers Association issued a statement last week saying that there is no risk of exposure to formaldehyde in cabinets that receive its Environmental Stewardship Program seal, because its program requires that engineered wood used in it must be CARB Compliant.
Other groups have questioned the validity of testing methods used to detect formaldehyde in wood products – such as flooring sold by online retailer Wayfair – tests that deconstruct the multi-layered sandwich that makes up laminate flooring. The Hardwood Plywood and Veneer Association estimates that “finishes of paint, lacquer, sealants, laminate, plastic or other material” reduce formaldehyde emissions of the underlying raw board by 90 percent.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/wood/pricing-supply/appalachian-hardwood-manufacturers-tout-formaldehyde-free-real-solid-wood
by Web Editor | Nov 2, 2015 | News
From: Panel World Staff
Jackson Morrill, president of Composite Panel Association, updated the executive committee’s recommendations on “policy positions” with regard to energy/biomass issues that impact wood fiber supply during the September Fall Meeting in Banff, Alberta.
CPA opposes government policies that distort the market for woody biomass raw material, Morrill noted, adding that market forces should determine all uses of wood and wood residuals for renewable energy; policies that have the direct effect of diverting biomass supply to subsidized energy should be avoided; and governments that choose to initiate policies intended to increase demand for biomass energy production should couple them with policies that increase the available long-term supply of wood to meet future demand of composite wood panels as well as new and growing markets for energy and other uses.
Morrill said CPA will stay silent on the carbon neutrality of wood-to-energy, noting however that forest derived biomass should be treated as carbon neutral where there is a sustainable growing forest; within carbon accounting frameworks, the composite panel industry’s use of wood residuals to make long-lived products should be treated as a higher value use than energy recovery; the composite panel industry’s use of wood residuals is an important alternate use that should be considered when determining the scope of “qualified biomass” under the U.S. EPA Clean Power Plan.
Morrill said CPA will advocate that composite wood products be recognized for their carbon sequestration benefits; that public policies should recognize that sustainably managed forests and forest products sequester and store carbon and reduce CO2; the use of biomass in creating long-lived products that serve as carbon sinks should be formally recognized in any carbon calculations that might be referenced in a future carbon economy.
by Web Editor | Mar 27, 2015 | News
From: Panel World Staff
In response to the CBS 60 Minutes news story on formaldehyde emissions that aired March 1, Composite Panel Association developed a new information resource that provides the North American marketplace assurance that CPA-certified composite panels, and products made with those panels, do indeed comply with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) regulation.
To help protect U.S. consumers and eliminate confusion in the North American marketplace, CPA is working with the Federal Wood Industries Coalition (FWIC) to encourage the U.S. EPA to finalize their national regulation on emissions from composite panels that is now almost three years past the statutory deadline. It is important that EPA finalizes its regulation so that finished goods made with composite panels, made domestically or internationally, are regulated nationwide, CPA states.
In addition, CPA continues to work closely with CARB to ensure harmonization between California regulation, currently being amended, and EPA’s new regulation. CPA’s newest resource titled, “A Message from CPA About Formaldehyde Emissions,” is intended to provide customers, distributors, retailers and end-users of CPA-certified panels the confidence that panels labeled as compliant meet or exceed the CARB regulation.
The paper states that CPA has served as a TPC (third party certifier) and is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and by ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) (formerly ACLASS) as a certification and inspection body. It also operates a state-of-the-art testing facility also accredited by ANAB, with yearly assessments.
Read more on this story in the May 2015 issue of Panel World…
by Web Editor | Sep 6, 2013 | Taking Stock
Story by Rich Donnell,
Editor-In-Chief
The latest development in EPA’s proposed formaldehyde regulations is that Composite Panel Assn. and the Federal Wood Industry Coalition filed a petition with the EPA asking for an extension of the public comment time beyond what EPA had granted, due to the complexity of the proposed rules.
EPA’s proposed rules fundamentally align with the requirements for composite wood products set by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), putting in place national standards for companies that manufacture or import hardwood plywood, MDF and particleboard. EPA’s proposals also encourage switching to no-added formaldehyde resins.
Some of the concerns on industry’s part include the disclosure of confidential business information, the handling of non-complying lots, definitions of hardboard and laminated products for purposes of exemption, treatment of ULEF and NAF, and various obligations of third party certifiers.
CPA has favored national standards to level the playing field, but if it needs more time, so be it. After all, the formaldehyde emissions issue has been with us for more than three decades, and even longer if you go back to the early 1970s; that’s when the technical director of National Particleboard Assn. (which became CPA) called up the NPA legal counsel and said somebody had raised the question about whether the off-gassing of formaldehyde was something individual companies should be concerned about because it might violate the federal law that prohibited shipment of chemicals or items that might cause chemical-related problems. NPA chose to send out a notice to its member companies giving them a heads-up.
The issue really took hold in the late 1970s, when some manufactured home occupants complained about irritation; also, a study by the Chemical Industry Institute of Technology found high levels of inhaled formaldehyde (15.0 ppm-parts per million) for a two-year period caused nasal cancer in lab rates; and Consumer Products Commission investigated a few installation problems with urea formaldehyde foam insulation in retrofit projects in older homes, generating widespread media coverage.
As CPA is today, it was then highly proactive along with the adhesive suppliers, and by the mid 1980s product emissions had been reduced by more than 75%.
EPA first jumped into the fray in 1983, looking at worst-case scenarios and suggesting home occupants could develop cancer, though numerous independent studies kept indicating such evidence was lacking.
In the mid 1990s, NPA even put up nearly a half million dollars toward the construction of a test home, and the ensuing studies showed formaldehyde levels lower than what the EPA models had predicted. In the test house as a whole, formaldehyde concentrations did not exceed .070 ppm, and the highest level was .076 ppm in the kitchen.
Today’s CARB regulations and those proposed by EPA call for 0.09 ppm for particleboard, 0.11 for MDF and 0.13 for thin MDF, as well as 0.05 ppm for hardwood plywood with veneer or composite core. EPA should thank the composite board industry for its amazing accomplishments.
