Testing For Formaldehyde In Wood Flooring

Testing services for laminate engineered wood flooring furniture and cabinetry berkeley analytical offers formaldehyde testing services for manufacturers importers distributors and retailers impacted by california air resources board carb atcm phase 2 and by u s.

Testing for formaldehyde in wood flooring.

However the standards can provide a benchmark for evaluating formaldehyde emissions from a product and a sample of your laminate wood flooring can be tested. Consumer product safety commission cpsc tested formaldehyde levels released from specific types of laminate flooring made in china between 2012 and 2014 and sold at lumber liquidators stores in the united states. The most common test requires a special testing chamber and there are a limited number of firms that are able to perform this test. Testing composite wood products to measure emissions of formaldehyde from plywood particle board and medium density fiberboard mdf is commonly known as carb testing.

This test method is used for product quality control and is a small bench test method that correlates with the large scale acceptance test for determining formaldehyde. Wood products typically evaluated by this test method are made with urea formaldehyde adhesives and include particleboard hardwood plywood and medium density fiberboard. Formaldehyde is an ever present colorless gas that can give off a pickle like smell. Laminate flooring is less expensive than solid wood but there have been concerns that it emits formaldehyde.

These tests are normally performed in a climate controlled laboratory with a special formaldehyde testing chamber some are small scale chambers while others can be quite large. So consumer reports bought a variety of wood based flooring products and ran lab tests. Testing for formaldehyde in bulk building materials wood floors etc installed composite wood products emsl free formaldehyde impinger method provide emsl with a 2 inch by 2 inch square piece of the composite wood product and place in a sealed plastic bag. California requires flooring manufacturers to pass the carb2 testing for formaldehyde emissions and to label their products as phase 2 compliant.

Cpsc tested the same type of flooring that had some of the highest formaldehyde levels in tests conducted during a recent consumer investigation. These standards were set in place after the air resources board arb found that one of the major causes of formaldehyde exposure was from composite wood products containing urea formaldehyde resins. It has been commonly used in home products for decades in everything from certain types of wood flooring to. Epa tsca title vi regulations for formaldehyde emissions from composite wood products.