A warehousing operation called us in to examine the air quality in one of their warehouses. One of their customers had received several shipments of plywood from China, and the warehousing operator felt that the atmosphere around the plywood was contaminated. We ran a few tests and determined that formaldehyde was off-gassing from the plywood. We explained to the warehousing operation that urea formaldehyde is a common adhesive used in the manufacturing of plywood. We also noted that we had never heard of the urea formaldehyde deteriorating into formaldehyde gas. As broadcast by the news media in 2007 and 2008, formaldehyde was discovered in trailers which were manufactured for FEMA.
Our client, the warehousing operator, was able to reject further shipments of this plywood. The owners of this plywood (distributors to the manufactured housing and towable trailer industries) were, unfortunately, not so wise.
