What's in furniture? It's enough to make you sick.

[Guest guest]

San Francisco Chronicle (http://us.f344.mail./chronicle/)

 

What's in furniture? It's enough to make you sick.

 

_Susan Fornoff, Chronicle Staff Writer_

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Wednesday, October 24, 2007

 

Laura Ingram rarely buys anything new, but last spring the 58-year-old

Oakland landlord sprang for 16 feet of new oak bookcases to line the walls of

her

backyard studio-office.

" There was no problem in the showroom, when I was standing there with huge

stacks of shelves, " she said. " But when the shelves arrived, they provoked

such a violent allergic reaction in me after delivery that the vendor had to

come and get them the next day and put them on a loading dock for three weeks

to

off-gas. "

 

The bookcases came back, and Ingram paid a carpenter to install them and a

helper to move 35 boxes of books. Still, her chest would hurt, her lips would

swell, she'd get confused and feel as if she had the flu.

 

So the furniture sat in her yard for three more months while she waited for

the chemical odor to dissipate. It didn't. The vendor finally returned

Ingram's money and took the bookcases away.

 

" This was my attempt to spiff up my environment, " Ingram said. " Now, I'd be

extremely wary and want every certificate in the world. "

 

The problem for Ingram and others who are growing increasingly sensitized to

indoor air pollutants is that the certificate doesn't exist, and the

furniture industry resists the notion of labeling its wares. Consumers can read

a

list of the ingredients in their cornflakes and a summary of what nutrients

they contain, but good luck trying to find out what's in the new set of bedroom

furniture we spend eight hours with every night.

 

The store owner concluded that it was some chemical in the lacquer that made

Ingram sick. Lacquers can contain high levels of solvents that release

volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, that the American Lung Association reports

can irritate eyes, skin and lungs and cause headaches, nausea and even liver

and kidney damage.

 

Kirk Saunders, a finish specialist at EcoHome Improvement, guesses it was

formaldehyde off-gassing from pressed wood. Emissions from urea formaldehyde -

" which is really, really bad for you, and is so ubiquitous in an urban

environment, " Saunders said - can cause cancer " and other adverse health

effects, "

according to the California Air Resources Board.

If it had been a couch Ingram had bought, potential irritants would have

multiplied. The upholstery might have been treated for stain and water

resistance with a finish containing more formaldehyde and also

perfluorooctanoic acid,

considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to be a likely human

carcinogen. It might have been dyed with chemicals including benzidine, a

carcinogen, and filled with polyurethane foam made before 2006 and containing

flame-retardant polybrominated diphenyl ethers, which are now banned in

California

for their potential health effects.

 

The EPA has a list of 188 air toxics (referred to by some as HAPs, hazardous

air pollutants), and has assessed and classified 32 of those. Benzene, a

carcinogen that can emit knock-out fumes, is a solvent that has been commonly

used for making resins, paints and dyes. Ethylene oxide, a probable carcinogen

that can also cause brain and nerve malfunctions, has been used in

polyurethane foam and adhesives. Hydrazine, a chemical used in textile dyes, is

a

probable carcinogen with a range of adverse health effects, and vinyl chloride,

used in the making of some furniture, is a carcinogen that can cause liver

damage with chronic exposure.

 

Furniture, the EPA's " Introduction to Indoor Air Quality " states, can

release pollutants " more or less continuously, " producing immediate effects

such as

eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches and dizziness that can be most

intense right after the furniture comes off the assembly line and then seem to

dissipate. But even for those without immediate violent reactions such as

Ingram's, there can be long-term effects, such as respiratory and heart

ailments

and cancer.

 

" I might feel nothing now, but I might be at risk later of respiratory

issues, cancer and so on, " said Carl Smith, CEO of Greenguard, which tests

emissions from new products seven days after unwrapping them. " You don't get

cancer

just from walking into the room. "

" Only a small number of the 80,000 chemicals registered with the EPA have

been tested for harmful effects, " said Rowena Finegan, owner of San Francisco's

Eco-terric (a green home furnishings store) and a specialist in

Bau-biologie, the study of the effects of the built environment on human health.

" I'm

sure we all suffer from stuffed noses and achiness that's all due to

chemicals. "

 

It is possible to find furniture that is chemical free and made of

all-natural material; Finegan has partnered with Cisco Brothers to create

residential

furniture that uses only sustainable wood frames, pure latex foam and pure

wool batting. Natural Sense makes foam from tree sap. Columbia Forest Products

has replaced formaldehyde in its pressed-wood products with soy-based and

cost-competitive PureBond, which could revolutionize the ubiquitous plywood and

particleboard (see your kitchen cabinets for examples and a Federal Emergency

Management Agency trailer for extremes) and even MDF, or medium-density

fiberboard, which appears in many expensive pieces of furniture as a veneer

because it tends to be less flawed than natural wood.

 

" We're doing low-VOC lacquer, a low-fume urea formaldehyde, we've made great

strides in reducing formaldehydes, VOCs, HAPs, " said Bill Perdue, the vice

president of environmental affairs, health, safety and standards for the

American Home Furnishings Alliance. " I guess part of what's happened is we have

not told our story very well. "

 

The High Point, N.C., trade group launched its Enhancing Furniture's

Environmental Culture program in 1999, prompted partly by increasing regulation

(much of it in California, much of it global) and also by growing public

awareness of environmental issues. Now it is partnering on a new launch, the

Sustainable Furniture Council, which has set out to establish an " eco-label "

for

furniture.

 

" We're in the process of developing a hangtag that customers can see, "

Perdue said. " It's been to the detriment of our industry that we haven't gotten

the word out. "

 

The Sustainable Furniture Council, more than 100 members strong after only

one year, announced its standards for certification at the High Point

Furniture Market this month. Meanwhile, two respected third-party standards,

that of

Green Seal and Greenguard, have zeroed in on components (with Green Seal

testing paints, adhesives and other materials used in the making of furniture)

and on office/contract furniture (Greenguard is testing and certifying a long

list of brands of furniture for meeting standards of VOCs, formaldehyde and

other indoor air emissions).

 

" The residential furniture industry has been slow thus far adopting

standards for indoor air quality, " said Smith of Greenguard. " It is something

that is

very problematic for them - not so much for the cost of testing, but for the

need to make changes in their formulations. "

Smith said that there are two ways a furniture-maker can receive Greenguard

certification for a product that has exposed particleboard: Switch from

formaldehyde to another ( " slightly more expensive " ) binder, or seal the

particleboard in laminate or some other coating. So far, architects shooting

for high

ratings from LEED (that's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a

certification program run by the U.S. Green Building Council) have driven the

office/contract furniture manufacturers to make changes; of course there are

also standards for school furniture, because children are considered at risk.

 

" But in the home, " Smith said, " furniture is one of the three or four things

we should be most concerned about, " along with carpets, adhesives and paints.

 

Formaldehyde emissions levels have dropped in recent years - though try

telling that to someone doing a kitchen or installing 13 feet of shelves. The

California Air Resources Board has taken aim at urea formaldehyde and

established regulations that by 2012 " will set a standard for the entire

world, " Perdue

said. He and his group succeeded in removing from the regulations a

requirement that manufacturers test and label their furniture before sending it

to

retailers, but there will be third-party certification by the board.

 

" Woods shipped through California will be clearly marked, and the box you

buy at Ikea should be clearly labeled, and everybody throughout the process

will be held responsible for it, " said Dimitri Stanich, spokesman for the

board,

which adopted the new regulations in April and, barring an industry

challenge, will begin implementing them in tiers starting in 2009. " Once these

regulations are implemented, they will be the most health-protective in the

country. "

 

" Phase 2, " Perdue said, " will set a standard for the entire world. I would

anticipate that to meet Phase 2 compliance levels, we'll have to move away

from urea formaldehyde altogether. "

 

As to other chemicals, Perdue said, " We think down the road there may be

some type of certification for residential furniture. " He's joined the U.S.

Green Building Council's committee developing LEED certification for

residential

furniture.

 

But, beyond certification and a stamp of approval, where is the label that

merely lists the components of a product and lets the consumer make an

informed choice about what to inhale from the breakfast table besides the

cornflakes?

 

" We're where food was 15 or 20 years ago - now there are labels, " said

Victoria Schomar, principal of the Green Built Environments design firm, who

gave

a design seminar at the San Francisco Furniture Mart's Live Green, Live Well

show last month. " We're not there yet with furniture. "

 

" Most furniture companies probably don't know what's in their furniture, "

said Saunders of EcoHome Improvement.

 

Indeed, one furniture manufacturer said that although he upholsters and

finishes his chairs locally, frames come from overseas, so he knows only how

they

are supposed to have been made. Keith Parker, owner of the small,

family-owned company where Ingram bought her bookcases, said the ones Ingram

chose came

from a firm in Southern California that he assumed used a " standard lacquer "

of primarily acetone, which has been exempted by the EPA.

 

Said Finegan, " Those businesses that are involved in the healthy furnishings

industry know what they are selling and are proud to be leading a very

worthwhile cause. I would suggest that you advise your readers to ask searching

questions when they are buying furniture, and if the person they are addressing

hasn't a clue what they are talking about, they should go elsewhere. "

 

Perdue in part agreed. " Don't take the furniture home and then complain, " he

said. " Go to Levitz and say, 'I want furniture that's low-VOC, low-HAPs,

without UF.' They can't go into the buying situation and then say, 'Oh, this

furniture makes me sick.' The companies that are retailers, you'll be able to

ask them those questions pretty soon and get good answers. "

(A Levitz spokeswoman was in contact via e-mail for this story but did not

answer questions about the contents of the store's furniture.)

 

Furniture manufacturers thus far would like to leave it up to the consumer

to press for answers; one salesperson said, " They didn't used to tell us what

was in it because they didn't want us to know. "

 

" Historically, there has not been the concern or awareness that it needed to

be disclosed, " said Greenguard's Smith. " But there was also not the

awareness that it could make you sick. Increasingly, people are becoming aware

of

that. I think that over time, formulations and components will have to be

disclosed. "

 

In the meantime, Ingram had an empty wall in her studio and decided, she

said, to buy " something used that the poison has already seeped out of. " So off

she went to the Berkeley Outlet and found five rustic, 7-foot-tall pine

bookcases salvaged from Fantasy Records.

 

One more thing we don't know: There is no timeline for exactly how long a

new piece of furniture containing formaldehyde or other potentially harmful

chemicals continues to emit gases after the obvious smell has dissipated. But

shelves that once held music on vinyl should be a safe bet.

 

House calls

 

Don't bother calling the doctor to ask for a prescription for furniture to

breathe by. But here are a few resources to help you shop:

 

Try the lists of products that have been third-party certified by Greenguard

( _www.greenguard.org_ (http://www.greenguard.org/)

), Green Seal ( _www.greenseal.org_ (http://www.greenseal.org/) ) and

Scientific Certification Systems ( _www.scscertified.com_

(http://www.scscertified.com/) ). Greenguard and SCS deal specifically with air

quality, while Green

Seal also examines environmental impact.

 

The Sustainable Furniture Council ( _www.sustainablefurniturecouncil.com_

(http://www.sustainablefurniturecouncil.com/)

) is an industry partner without independent testing, but its 120 or so

members represent a good place to start shopping and asking questions; all of

their links are on the council's site. Some of the better-known names include

American Leather, Century, Harden, Lee Industries, Palecek and Room & Board.

 

Surf for furniture on the search engine TheFindGreen.com. Again, there's no

independent testing or certification, but many of the merchants are listed in

other databases or at least declare their devotion to sustainability and

natural processes.

 

Check out the offerings at Eco-terric (1812 Polk St. in San Francisco,

_www.eco-terric.com_ (http://www.eco-terric.com/)

), which promises to use healthy, nontoxic materials in its products. For

listings of other Bay Area retailers that have eco-friendly furniture, see the

San Francisco pages at Greenopia ( _www.greenopia.com_

(http://www.greenopia.com/) ).

 

At the fall furniture market in High Point, N.C., green was declared " the

new beige. " Bernhardt, a leader in contract/office furniture eco-options,

introduced an eco-friendly collection of residential case goods; Rowe showed

upholstered furniture cushioned in plant-based foam; C.R. Laine premiered an

upholstery package it's calling " down2earth " ; and Palecek, a longtime user of

sustainable woods and fibers, came out with all-natural fabrics of hemp,

bamboo,

cotton and linen. Don't look for these in stores just yet - fall market

introductions usually start making their way into the retail sector early in

the

next calendar year.

- Susan Fornoff

 

Cures for toxic furniture

--

The California Air Resources Board recommends avoiding products that emit

" significant amounts of formaldehyde or other gaseous pollutants. " These

include " some types of plywood and particleboard. "

 

-- If you want new furniture from a store, tell sales reps you're looking

for furniture low in VOCs. They probably won't know what you're talking about,

but if enough people ask them, they'll start asking store owners and

manufacturers.

 

-- Check Greenguard and Green Seal, two independent and impartial nonprofit

testers, for lists of the kind of furniture you're looking for. New items are

certified every day. ( _www.greenguard.org_ (http://www.greenguard.org/)

, _www.greenseal.org_ (http://www.greenseal.org/) )

 

-- Remember that price isn't necessarily a reflection of purity, one way or

the other - flat-box furniture marketer Ikea has some of the world's highest

environmental standards, while very expensive furniture could contain large

quantities of medium-density fiberboard to achieve perfect-looking veneers.

 

-- Ask the manufacturer or distributor to air out the product for a few

weeks before it comes to your home. Then, let the product sit outside or in the

garage for a while, if possible, or make sure it's in a well ventilated space

inside.

 

-- Consider purchasing solid wood furniture that's unfinished and therefore

should contain only the small amount of formaldehyde that occurs naturally in

wood. Then, finish it or have it finished and/or painted in low- or no-VOC

stains, paints or lacquers.

 

-- Avoid upholstery that has been treated to resist stains and water - or

look for Nano-Tex, a new technology that attaches molecules to fibers without

coating them.

 

-- Consider buying used furniture, which may no longer be emitting, or

antiques.

 

-- The old-fashioned way to make sure your new furniture comes without

undesirable chemicals: Have it made to your specifications by a local artisan.

 

- Susan Fornoff

E-mail Susan Fornoff at

_sfornoff_

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