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Is Chinese-Made Laminate Flooring Safe?

Tests in California find high levels of formaldehyde in laminate flooring sold by Lumber Liquidators,60 Minutesreports

Suspect flooring sold by Lumber Liquidators.A news report claims Chinese-made laminate flooring sold in California contained formaldehyde levels six or seven times higher than allowed by state regulations.
Image Credit: Dwight Burdette/Wikimedia Commons

A report by the television news program60 Minutesclaims samples of Chinese-made laminate flooring sold by Lumber Liquidators contained six or seven times as much formaldehyde as permitted by California regulations and may pose a health threat to unsuspecting homeowners.

In a program that was broadcast on March 1, correspondent Anderson Cooper was told that the problem affected tens of thousands of households in California and hundreds of thousands around the country.

Cooper said that Lumber Liquidators, a national chain with more than 360 stores in 46 states, sells 100 million square feet of laminate flooring a year, much of it made in China.

The flooring, “as we discovered during our investigation,” he said, “may fail to meet health and safety standards because it contains high levels of formaldehyde, a known cancer causing chemical.”

The company says that its flooring is safe, he adds, “but it doesn’t appear that way.”

Samples purchased and tested by outside labs

Anderson spoke with Denny Larson, identified as the executive director of a nonprofit calledGlobal Community Monitor. Larson said that he and environmental attorney Richard Drury bought 150 boxes of laminate flooring around the state and had them tested by three labs.

“The results? While laminate flooring from Home Depot and Lowe’s had acceptable levels of formaldehyde, as did Lumber Liquidators American-made laminates, every single sample of Chinese-made laminate flooring from Lumber Liquidators failed to meet California formaldehyde emissions standards,” the report said. “Many by a large margin.”

On average, the flooring samples from Lumber Liquidators outlets had six or seven times as much formaldehyde as state standards allowed, but some showed levels 20 times as high as permitted. One of the labs, Drury said, was so startled by the results that technicians “thought their machine was broken.”

Problem extends beyond California

60 Minuteswondered whether the problem extended beyond California, Cooper reported, so producers purchased 31 boxes of Lumber Liquidators Chinese-made laminate flooring at stores in Virginia, Florida, Texas, Illinois and New York.

“We sent the samples for testing at two certified labs,” he said. “It turns out of the 31 samples of Chinese-made laminate flooring, only one was compliant with formaldehyde emissions standards. Some were more than 13x over the California limit. Both labs told us they had never seen formaldehyde levels that high.

“But when we took those test results to Lumber Liquidators’ founder and chairman Tom Sullivan, he refused to accept the methodology as valid and points out the company is not required by law to test their finished products like we did.”

When interviewed, Sullivan said the lab tests were “not a real world test of the laminate,” and said the tests were originally prompted by a group of lawyers who are suing the company and short-selling the stock (that is, betting the stock’s value will decline).

The company’s stock rose from $13 a share in 2011 to $119 a share two years later as profit margins doubled, the report said, leading one hedge fund manager60 Minutesinterviewed to suspect it might be breaking the law. Whitney Tilson told Cooper he had been tipped that Lumber Liquidators was buying formaldehyde tainted flooring in China because it was cheaper and allowed a fatter profit margin.

A60 Minutesundercover trip to Chinese factoring making the flooring confirmed Tilson’s claims, Cooper said.

6 Comments

  1. Jason Hyde, Peterborough 6A||#1

    It's worse
    Apparently, laws are being broken long before the wood gets to these formaldehyde factories. As if it isn't bad enough to buy flooring with dangerous levels of a known carcinogen, the wood is alsounsustainably harvested AND stolen.

    http://globalnews.ca/news/1592177/russian-timber-thieves-selling-wood-in-north-america-environmentalist-says/

    有一些技巧在纪录片how to avoid stolen timber at the retail level, but it is not clear to me if there is a definitive source. Obviously, we avoid the above mentioned company, but the documentary indicates there are likely more. When you see the video, and the volume of wood we're talking about, your jaw will drop.

    EDIT: Above link was for the promo before it aired. Here is the full piece.

    http://globalnews.ca/news/1858806/lumber-liquidators-may-face-criminal-prosecution/

  2. GBA Editor
    Martin Holladay||#2

    Chinese products
    Somewhere in Florida, there is probably a house that has Chinese laminate flooring as well as Chinese drywall. Let's just hope that the owners didn't buy Chinese dog food for their collie and Chinese baby formula for their infant.

  3. Alan B||#3

    @ Martin
    Any family that has done all four is beyond doomed

    Everyone is hoping china will improve their manufacturing standards, but its not very likely, this is what happens when there are no laws and profit trumps human life.

  4. Expert Member
    Malcolm Taylor||#4

    We like the good, but not the bad
    Scary, but as I type this on my Chinese computer I can't help think that if I got rid of all the Chinese products in my house there would be little left.

  5. Chris Barnes||#5

    Laminate
    None of the stories that I have read have mentioned the engineered wood product from LL. Does anyone have any thoughts on if these products are an issue? It seems to me that the engineered wood would also require an adhesive to bond the wood veneer to the .. bottom part of the plank.

  6. Heroic Artisan||#6

    It's just soooo 19th century
    This is what happens with race to the bottom consumer pricing and an industrial regime that obliges those demands. Tom Sullivan's protestations over methodology did provide a bit of amusement though.

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