Chiswick Couple Launch Fight Against 'Toxic' Furniture
Bedroom cabinets contained levels of formaldehyde exceeding WHO and EU limits
A Chiswick couple has spoken of their traumatic experience of being exposed to high levels of cancer-causing formaldehyde fumes from new, luxury bedroom furniture.
Air quality tests they paid privately to carry out, were so dangerously high that the built-in wardrobes and cabinets had to be torn out immediately. Eighteen months on, the couple are still waiting for their money back.
The fumes from the furniture had made their eyes sting badly and they
felt too unwell to sleep in the room. When Tracey and Richard Szwagrzak
complained, they were told by the supplier that the eye stinging was normal
and would go away if they left the windows open. However, while the cabinets
remained in the bedroom and the eye stinging persisted, the Szwagrzaks
became so concerned that they paid for expert air quality tests by BRE
(the former government Building Research Establishment).
By the time a BRE scientist visited, a week later, the eye stinging had finally stopped and the couple wondered whether they had been over-reacting. But even when the fumes in the room were indistinguishable from the smell of fresh paint on the walls, air quality tests registered levels of pollution in the room that were 13 x World Health Organisation (WHO) limits for Formaldehyde, 18 x UK Building Regulations for Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and 5 x WHO limits for Styrene (a filler, they were told, which is normally found on the exterior of buildings).
"We do not believe the supplier meant to poison us, but neither do we think this was a one-off accident. The company told us that eye stinging was normal. They said the ‘smell’ was coming from lacquer they had been using for ten years. They told us they had used similar products in their own children’s bedrooms. And they said we were the first people to complain. This is not surprising when, even at the dangerously high levels registered in our bedroom, we could not smell a problem.”
Although the company is not based in Chiswick, they worked on multiple projects here in 2017 and came highly-recommended. Tracey and Richard hoped the firm would learn from the BRE’s findings, but it still denies responsibility. Nearly a year and a half after the company removed its offending furniture, the Szwagrzaks are still awaiting a full refund.
Formaldehyde fumes cause naso-pharyngeal cancer in humans, according to the World Health Organisation. Most studies of the health risks from formaldehyde involve undertakers, medical students and those working in chemical industries. But there is growing concern of the threats to consumers, globally. That is formaldehyde emitting products are widely-used in construction. In MDF, for example, it is in the resin which binds wood particles together into flat panels. Last week a BBC report highlighted concerns, amid China’s housing boom, of a growing formaldehyde risk there.
Mr and Mrs Szwagrzak are so concerned that people are unaware, as they once were, of potentially harmful chemicals from MDF (or other composite wood-) based furniture in Britain, that they have decided to go public. ‘We could have been breathing this stuff in for 8 hours a night and would never have known it was poisoning us. The company also makes cabinets for nurseries and in the homes of older people,” said Mrs Szwagrzak. “Surely, the potential risk from formaldehyde must be even greater for those vulnerable groups?”
The couple also told their story to an All Party Parliamentary Group on Air Pollution last week, chaired by Geraint Davis MP. The All Party Group meeting was held under the heading: ‘The killer in your kitchen - APPG on Indoor Air Pollution'.
They have been supported by local MP Ruth Cadbury, whose questions in Parliament have so far failed to identify the government department responsible for protecting consumers from this form of indoor air pollution. Ruth commented: "I believe that this particular problem about keeping MDF with formaldehyde out of our furniture, is surely possible and that we can bring in the relevant standards to prevent this problem."
Ruth has pledged to follow up the issue with further approaches to identify what regulations are needed to address the specific issue.
"Nobody else should have to go through this and we have to thank Tracey and Richard because they've carried out and paid for this research, they've been extremely diligent. We've got external air coming in which is of poor air quality from some of our roads and then on the other hand if if you seal up your house, you haven't got enough oxygen, so if there are poisonous compounds in your home, not having through ventilation will exacerbate the problem."
Since the meeting, the NICE is currently reviewing its guidelines on 'Health Within Households' and Tracey has sent her case evidence to the NICE via Public Health England in the hope that it may help the review. She has also contacted Geraint Davies, Labour MP who is sponsoring an Air Quality Bill, in the hope that it might help matters.
Tracey and her husband were shocked to discover that, while air quality in the workplace is regulated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) there is no similar authority to protect consumers in their own homes. Citing council budget cuts, even Trading Standards have not acted on a complaint by the couple, nearly 18 months on. In the absence of effective consumer protection, the couple believe that the only solution is to regulate so that only zero formaldehyde-emitting MDF can be used in homes.
The couple told chiswickw4.com that they were concerned other residents in Chiswick could also be exposed to this level of indoor air pollution if they are having work done in their home. They think it likely that MDF-based furniture made by many different companies could also release high levels of formaldehyde fumes. Only air quality tests can show whether residents are exposed or not. “It horrified us to watch as the company which installed our furniture continued working in our neighbours homes. But we were powerless to stop them.”
"We hope that anyone commissioning luxury built-in
furniture would specify ultra-low formaldehyde-emitting (so called Carb-2)
MDF, which may be easier to obtain than zero-emitting MDF. That and also
be aware that eye stinging is most definitely a symptom of dangerously-high
levels of cancer-causing formaldehyde."
September 14, 2018