Anyone watch 60 Minutes tonight? They has a segment about the laminate flooring that Lumber Liquidators is having made at three plants in China. It can be made 10% to 15% cheaper if you put in excessive formaldehyde. It exceeds California limits as much as 20X.
The factories are putting the CARB 2 labels on but they say it is not compliant. The LL CEO, of course, said he did not know anything about it and will investigate.
| Anyone watch 60 Minutes tonight? They has a segment about the laminate | flooring that Lumber Liquidators is having made at three plants in | China. It can be made 10% to 15% cheaper if you put in excessive | formaldehyde. It exceeds California limits as much as 20X. |
I saw that. Very interesting. I had thought that formaldehyde was banned years ago. I know that I haven't seen urea/formaldehyde glue for sale for many years. So I was surprised that any use of formaldehyde was legal. It's a known carcinogen. That makes me wonder, now, about spray insulation. Spray foam was popular years ago. Then it turned out that if offgassed formaldehyde *and* turned to dust after a few years. Now a similar product is back in fashion for use in new construction. I wonder whether the new stuff is really any better than the old stuff.
Interesting side note: I've had trouble with toenail fungus on one foot. One treatment is to put urea solution on the nail until it falls off. I used to have a pint-size can of urea crystals from urea-formaldehyde glue that I'd bought years ago at the Woodworkers store. CVS wanted $80 for a tiny bottle of urea solution
-- a common industrial and agricultural chemical! So I went looking for my can of urea, but apparently I threw it out years ago. By CVS standards that can would probably be worth over $20,000. :)
Hi, Toenail fungus? If you still have it, go to a local health food store, look for a nail solution made by Thursday Plantation of Australia. It is a formula based on Tea tree oil which works very well. Proven by pedicurists.
Yah, Liquid Lumberdators double-checks their suppliers for safety and CARB compliance. Not to worry though, Monday morning the greedy chief asshole from Liquid Lumberdators is going to triple check their suppliers. This won't happen again because Liquid Lumberdators cares about your safety. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!
And for those that missed 60 Minutes, CBS has it here:
Buy some Liquid Lumberdator flooring and walk on it with your bare feet?
Product called tea tree cream (the oil might work also) is supposed to help. Needs to be applied and then covered with a bandage each day until the infected nail grows out. Might take a few months.
My old podiatrist used to say hot water soak with some vinegar in the water. That helped loosen the dried skin. Not sure if it helped with fungus.
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Also appears to be the ingredient in Walgreens skin tag remover. I had one on my neck, the tag remover did the job, fell off in about two weeks. Much cheaper than whatever the $$dermatologi$t$$ would have charged.
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I caught it last night and thought it was interesting. Typical sleazy corporation trying to save a buck or two at the expense of peoples safety. You could totally tell the CEO was lying when they showed him the Chinese factory footage.
I saw it too and question in my mind was that, while it fails California standard, what about US standards?
I know on CA prop 65 that their no significant risk limits are far tighter than those used by OSHA. Sixty Minutes had boards tested out of state to prove tests were correct but did not say if other state where they were tested would have failed them.
CA was also just testing the boards where I would expect the EPA to sample the indoor air.
| Toenail fungus? If you still have it, go to a local health food store, | look for a nail solution made by Thursday Plantation of Australia. | It is a formula based on Tea tree oil which works very well. Proven | by pedicurists.
Thanks, but my ladyfriend tried that for a number of months and had no luck. (We both have it on one foot, oddly.) I haven't found anything that *really* works.
| My old podiatrist used to say hot water soak with | some vinegar in the water. That helped loosen the | dried skin. Not sure if it helped with fungus.
Interesting thought. I've wondered whether there might be a good home remedy. People must have had some options before there were anti-fungal creams.
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I had it on, paid moderate attention...what I thought I heard was that EPA implemented the CA standards in part, at least, altho didn't try to get the details particularly.
They also talked about some emissions testing but as noted, that's so variable based upon the specifics of any installation owing to circulation, air leakage, etc., etc., etc., as to be of no meaning as a general rule so didn't pay much attention at all to that part...
The one medical professional indicated in his opinion the higher levels would definitely have enough outgassing over time in a confined space as to be a longterm increased risk but again, as is always the case, he noted there's no way to predict for any given individual a specific outcome...I didn't hear any risk predictions on means, etc., even, I presume owing to that they were either so low despite the comparison to limits or variable or difficult to predict they weren't meaningful so didn't make any worthwhile sensation factor to help the story--keeping in mind that they have no story if it isn't sensational in the end...
Everything causes cancer in CA. Given it was many times the limit and they had complaints from consumers, it is probably over the limits you'd want anywhere.
I was also very surprised that the factory people were so quick to admit it was over, but they put the labels on anyway. There are many potential problems with LL, the factory, the third party testing company.
Amputation. It is the only sure, permanent solution :)
I've been cursed with fungus (athlete's foot) since 1945, got it - guess where - gym class. I have fought it for decades, best I've ever gotten was sort of an armed truce.
The nail fungus came many years later. A decade or two back I tried a phatmaceutical house "sure cure". Needed a prescription, cost about $700, had to use it for six months, money back guarantee. It did indeed get rid of it. Unfortunately, it came back as soon as I stopped using the med. Got my money back.
I've often wondered why some people are so susceptible to it, others not. The only thing I can think of is body pH. Fungus abhors acidity which is why people wrap cheese in something with a few drops of vinegar to keep it mold free.
Obviously, my pH isn't acidic (probably) but I can't wear a base metal wristwatch, metal is eaten up in a few months. If I am highly basic, maybe that is why fungus loves me so?
CA prop 65 has a no significant risk level for formaldehyde at 40 micrograms/day whereas OSHA permits workers to be exposed up to 2 ppm in continuous work environment.
Maybe somebody has the energy to figure out under the OSHA standard how many micrograms a worker might breathe in during an 8 hour shift.
Environmentalists had petitioned EPA to accept CA standard but I don't have the time to spend looking at their response:
CA is in a world unto itself on chemical toxicity. I write safety data sheets and if there is the possibility of a trace of a Prop 65 chemical in the product, I list it. If not, the likes of the Sierra Club will analyze your product and if they find an ingredient they tell the state and hope they fine you so the Sierra Club can get a cut.
So would you allow Lumber Liquidator's formaldehyde flooring to be installed in your home?
I damn sure wouldn't!
I'm not showing favor to Lumber Liquidators and certainly know that Chinese dry wall had a similar if not worse problem. I'm just wondering how bad the problem is as I know that CA has the tightest regulations.
As Oren points out it is not just new flooring that might out gas formaldehyde and new carpeting out gasses lots of similar goodies.
If flooring had sat in a ware house at length, formaldehyde level may be acceptable.
I'm guessing that there will be more and more cases where the old home remedy works fine, but the new highly expensive prescribed stuff does not. I'd like to know what the old remedies were, but that kind of information is being rapidly lost to mankind. I hope to be some small help, in that regard.
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Me too but a little later...maybe 1955.
Probably Griseofulvin. Works well but as you've discovered the Tinea returns. Actually it doesn't return. It's always there. I've consulted many dermatologists over the years and the synthesis of their remarks and treatment is that the fungus is all around us. I asked one if she wanted to put down some paper for me to walk on. Nope, pointless, she said. She actually ID'ed the type -- scraping and lab test (there are dozens of types or subtypes). No help. The same medication works on most of them but to a different degree and duration by joining with the skin or nail tissue and creating (for a while) resistant new skin. A few months later the tinea will return... unless you keep pounding it with the drug. One dermatologist wanted to remove my toenails. Didn't much like that idea.
Resistance is totally genetic. Either you have it (resistance) or you don't. Of my two (grown) sons one has it same as me: the other doesn't. My wife who shared the same bath mat and lots of other foot items also seems immune. However, both wife and the immune son suffer horribly from mosquito bites and both have huge problems with sunning themselves. Personally I prefer the Tinea.
As advised by a couple of the many dermatologists I've seen the best you can do is to control it with topical OTC creams, sprays, and lotions applied religiously daily. Also make sure you keep all affected parts dry.
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