April 13th, 2015 10:32 PM by Dan Howard
60 Minutes Airs Out Formaldehyde Problems in Lumber Liquidators Segment
For decades, the sentence "Hi, I'm from 60 Minutes" has struck terror into many business persons. Lumber Liquidators has recently had that experience and true to history, it was a very bad day for them.
The 60 Minutes story was that the potentially toxic gas formaldehyde was found to be off gassing from some of the laminate flooring the company was selling. The labs used by 60 Minutes were quoted as finding levels as high as 20 times the permissible level in homes with laminate flooring material coming from China.
Before going further, you should know that Lumber Liquidators has denied that facts of the news piece and has offered free formaldehyde testing to their customers who bought Chinese laminate flooring. The real story behind the story is that formaldehyde can be seriously elevated in many building materials and household products, not just Chinese laminate flooring.
Other products that can have dangerous levels of formaldehyde include plywood, furniture, plug in fragrances, candles, cabinets, carpets, detergents, deodorants, plastics, paints and a host of other household materials.
This is not the first time that formaldehyde has been a national story. Hundreds of trailers built as temporary housing for the victims of Hurricane Katrina were uninhabitable because of formaldehyde. Another example is UFFI ( Urea Formaldehyde Foam Insulation ). This was a insulation installed primarily in wall cavities during the 1970s. That insulation made countless people ill and rendered many homes uninhabitable with formaldehyde.