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From Home Furnishing Business
AHFA Forms Strategy for New California Regulation
May 9,
2007 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in on May 2007
The American Home Furnishings Alliance announced Wednesday that it is formulating a compliance strategy to help manufacturers meet the strict requirements in Californias new formaldehyde emissions regulation.
On April 27, California air regulators approved sweeping restrictions on emissions of formaldehyde, a chemical found in the resins used to manufacture hardwood plywood, particleboard and medium density fiberboard.
The regulation will have a dramatic impact on the global residential furniture market, as well as the cabinet, shelving, countertop and flooring markets. All wood has some naturally occurring formaldehyde. But more formaldehyde is added to composite wood in the form of resins used to bind wood particles together.
The California Air Resources Board, a department within Californias Environmental Protection Agency, has described home furnishings containing formaldehyde as a major source of indoor air pollution--one that the agency contends causes eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, allergies, aggravated asthma, decreased lung function, even cancer.
During three years of negotiations, AHFA and other industry stakeholders opposed CARBs proposed formaldehyde emission limits, contending that CARBs research referenced unsubstantiated health consequences of formaldehyde exposure and ignored newer, more reliable scientific data. Furthermore, AHFA said the emission limits adopted last month fail to take into account the absence of resin technology to replace that which is currently used in the manufacture of most composite wood products.
To ensure compliance, CARB is requiring foreign and domestic composite wood manufacturers to certify their products by a third party lab approved by the Air Resources Board. Also, all products must be clearly labeled as meeting the emission requirements. Distributors, contractors, panel manufacturers and importers will be held responsible for assuring that their products comply.
Initially, as part of its enforcement strategy, CARB proposed a finished product testing requirement. This would have forced furniture manufacturers to test and label all products before shipping to retail. AHFA aggressively opposed this part of the measure and succeeded in having it removed from the final regulation.
However, even without the finished product testing requirement, the third-party certification process remains ambiguous, according to Bill Perdue, AHFAs vice president of environmental management, health and safety.
It is unclear how overseas labs will receive CARB approval and how CARB will monitor their record-keeping, he said. AHFA is focusing its efforts on helping furniture manufacturers bridge this gap by identifying a protocol for ensuring their board suppliers are meeting the certification and labeling requirement.