Send all your eco-inquiries to Jennifer Grayson at eco.etiquette@gmail.com. Questions may be edited for length and clarity.
I was about to buy my soon-to-be-born baby a crib at Ikea the other day when I ran across an article about formaldehyde in furniture. Barely keeping up with pesticides, parabens, sulfates, and the like. Do I need to freak out about this too? Please advise.
-Maya
Those who read this column regularly know it's not my style to preach; above all, I strive to find common green ground, (hopefully) diplomatically crafting both sides of an eco argument and letting you -- smart, sustainability-minded readers that you are -- make your own informed decisions.
Well, I'm not going to do that this time. You ask whether formaldehyde in baby furniture is freak-out worthy. My answer is: Yes. Yes, it is.
But before you run screaming down the aisles of Ikea, flinging flimsy furniture and Swedish meatballs at every turn, let me first say that there is some good news about formaldehyde, at least from the consumer's perspective:
Unlike the chemical BPA, an insidious assailant that pops up everywhere from dental fillings to dollar bills, we know one sizable source of formaldehyde: wood furniture.
Specifically, pressed wood furniture, which includes particleboard (hello, Ikea!), some plywood, and medium density fiberboard. (Ikea, to its credit, has worked to reduce formaldehyde in its products.) All of these wood products are made from itty bitty pieces of wood that are bonded with a resin that contains formaldehyde.
We also know that formaldehyde, is indeed, highly toxic. The World Health Organization calls it a known carcinogen; EPA concurs, linking its inhalation to a host of cancers, including nasopharyngeal cancers, leukemia, and lymphoma.
Thankfully last year, President Obama signed the frumpy-sounding (but landmark) Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act into law, which will help protect consumers from formaldehyde exposure.
But until that law goes into effect (and even after, since it only reduces, not eliminates, formaldehyde in furniture), it's especially important to safeguard our littlest citizens. Their still-developing systems are most vulnerable to toxic chemical exposure.
Sadly, childhood cancers are on the rise; the more than 80,000 unregulated industrial chemicals now on the market in the US likely have something to do with it.
So, back to the crib. Babies sleep, on average, 15 hours a day. Which means whatever those plumpy little cheeks are pressed up against during their delicate slumber is what they'll be breathing in -- formaldehyde included.
That's why additionally, you should look for a crib or bassinet painted without VOCs (which also contain formaldehyde) and a mattress made from natural materials. Conventional crib mattresses contain a host of toxic chemicals, including formaldehyde, flame retardants, and phthalates (linked to early onset puberty).
In this economy, a green crib may seem like an out-of-reach expenditure, but it doesn't have to be. Forget the organic toys, forget the soy fabric onesies, forget the FSC-certified mobile: If you're going to make one green purchase for your baby, let it be a nontoxic place for him to sleep.
Still don't have room in your budget? Go the extra eco mile and swap disposable diapers for cloth ones; in the process you'll save over $1,000 per child -- enough for at least one of these four fabulous, formaldehyde-free finds:
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Nightmare
Sweet Dream
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Some estimates claim there are 85,000 synthetic chemicals in use today. Very few of these chemicals have been evaluated and even fewer are regulated. Walk down the aisle of any grocery, hardware or department store and look at what’s offered for consumption: a litany of industrial and household cleaning products, personal care products, air fresheners, scented candles, perfumes, formaldehyde-laden building products, chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, paints, thinners and solvents. Look at the ingredients. You probably can’t pronounce them but be sure your body’s absorbing them. As these individual compounds go untested, we’re even farther from understanding the health implications of the inestimable combinations of these substances.
A few documented statistics:
The National Academy of Sciences estimated that 15% of the U.S. population has chemical sensitivities. More recent studies place the number closer to 30%.
Asthma and autism in children has skyrocketed in recent years. Many researchers suspect environmental causes.
In 1991, OSHA estimated that 1.2 million buildings and 70 million workers suffer from poor indoor air quality.
In 1994, the Institute for Science and Disciplinary Studies in Massachusetts said, “Multiple chemical sensitivity is one of the fastest growing unsolved health problems in the U.S. and the world.”
The fix is complex but it starts with public awareness and education. We can all control what products we use and what we bring into our homes.
For new to be moms out there do your homework and treat this article with sceptisism - Ikea's cribs are an excellent choice for those parents trying to avoid the chemical 'nasties' and I hope the reader who posted the question from which this article is based gives them another look...Ikea cribs use non-toxic finishes, are made of solid wood and do no use formaldehyde additives - they also use European standards for their wood products which are typically a higher standard to that of America... their 'sniglar' crib, for example, is made of solid beech wood and has NO type of finish (toxic or non- toxic) so you are dealing with natural wood which compares favourably to more expensive cribs (no I don't work for Ikea but I did a lot of recent research and we went with the 'sniglar')... with regards to the crib mattresses: the costco mattress mentioned does use organic cotton but that's where the organic trail stops and while it appears to be a great choice and we did consider this particular mattress I chose not to go with a product where the company would not answer my questions re the various mattress components after phones calls and emails which left my questions unanswered... there are so many better options for healthy crib mattresses that this article could have referred to
Ikea is taking steps to reduce formaldehyde in its furniture, which I link to above. Reducing, however, is not the same as eliminating -- the Sniglar crib you reference, for instance, uses fiberboard for the bed base top of the crib:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60091931
And you're right -- there are a lot of options out there, especially where natural mattresses are concerned. Wish I had had the space here to highlight them all, but I at least wanted to list a few options at every price point. Naturpedic also makes great products:
http://www.naturepedic.com/
Columbia Forest Products, manufacturers of soy-based, EPA award-winning PureBond® formaldehyde-free hardwood plywood technology, has assembled a network of quality-oriented woodworkers who know their way around building with no-added urea formaldehyde wood and low- or zero-VOC finishes.
The easy-to-use PureBond Fabricator Network web directory is available at: http://columbiaforestproducts.com/general/locator.aspx