Last night, 60 Minutes reported on the dangers of laminate flooring sold by Lumber Liquidators. The reason....out-gassing of formaldehyde (a neuro-toxin).
Back when the Congress was still able to get a few significant bills passed in 2010, a bill was signed into law adopting the very strict state of California standard for formaldehyde emissions from building products .... accepted as a national standard and effective as of 2015. Those standards are labeled as, "CARB-2" on all shipping boxes.
Any laminate flooring that does not carry that endorsement cannot be sold, this year. However, it appears that Lumber Liquidators, which has all its flooring made in China, is in non-compliance with the present law. The president of the company was interviewed by Anderson Cooper. He made a number of excuses and dodges when it came to answering some pointed questions concerning the actions of his company. It will be interesting to see what happens going forward.
Formaldehyde is a chemical that is used in the glue and laminate products and a certain level is allowable by the federal government. The amount of this chemical found in the laminate flooring products in question was so high that the company doing the analysis thought that its equipment was broken, at first; it wasn't. This chemical can out-gas for the life of the laminate...just like it can in vinyl wallpaper and numerous other products. It is a toxin to our nervous systems.
When we were dissecting cadavers that were preserved in formaldehyde in chiropractic school, those who didn't wear gloves noted a numbness developing in their fingers...they quickly changed their tune about how "harmless" the chemical was.
Formaldehyde is much more dangerous for young children than adults because of the immaturity of children's nervous systems. However, exposure over a long period of time can lead to immune system compromise, liver problems and brain dysfunction symptomatology in both children and adults: foggy thinking, memory problems, cognition difficulties, behavioral problems and many more.
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