Chiswick Couple's Fight Against 'Toxic' Furniture Gets UK Coverage
Their bedroom contained dangerous levels of formaldehyde following refurb
A Chiswick couple's campaign to raise awareness of cancer-causing formaldehyde fumes from new furniture has been given a national platform following publication in The Guardian.
The story of how Tracey and Richard Szwagrzak discovered their bedroom furniture contained high levels of the dangerous chemical, was first highlighted by Chiswickw4.com last September. 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.
They strongly urge others considering similar work to insist the contractor uses zero formaldehyde MDF, if they can obtain it, or at least CARB2-compliant MDF that has a certifiably low formaldehyde rating. The couple now have this in their home.
The problems started when the couple decided to renovate their bedroom and install bespoke wardrobes and cabinets. But 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 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.”
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.
Tracey and Richard were 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 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 Tracey.“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 , 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, who said "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." The MP has pledged to follow up the issue with further approaches to identify what regulations are needed to address the specific issue.
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.
"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."
Tracey says: "The key point is that if new furniture makes your eyes sting, be worried. If you’re having lots of MDF furniture installed, insist on water-based lacquers and paints (oil-based also emit formaldehyde, adding to the MDF’s own formaldehyde emissions). If packing every available nook and cranny with MDF, consider zero-formaldehyde MDF - or better still, up-cycle old furniture. And check you have sufficiently good ventilation in the room."
February 8, 2019