The Health Risks Associated With Laminate Flooring

Posted on 04/05/2016

The Dangers of Laminate Flooring

Did you ever think that your floor could be dangerous for you and your family’s health? Well, the world finds new ways to surprise us all as recent researches focus on identifying the dangers that some floor types might cause to our health. Particularly, the researches focus on laminate flooring as it is among the synthetic types of flooring. As per usual, the organic nature of the wood is not the problem – it is the multi-layering that follows. Some of the companies that offer this easy to steam clean floor don’t care about the methods they use to fuse the wooden materials together and in some cases that creates flooring that make for a very unhealthy environment.

The Dangers of Formaldehyde
In case you were not aware, the wood of the floors you step on is spliced together with this material called formaldehyde. It is a toxic, but organic compound used in industrialism for coating. Now, it is not strictly the cause of trouble, as basically every single flooring of this type is probably made with the help of formaldehyde, and not all of them are dangerous. But there are companies that... well, there is no simpler way to put it other than half-ass their work. They put wooden planks together, but don’t use quality wood and in order to keep the boards together, they overuse the formaldehyde.

An investigation by US reporter Anderson Cooper has revealed that there are companies in China which use a higher level of formaldehyde than what is considered appropriate. Moreover, that level is actually over 20 times higher, which is an absurd number. The reason formaldehyde is so dangerous is that it is carcinogenic and continuous exposure leads to sinus problems as a start, and it only gets worse from there, as the adjective would properly imply – and no amount of steam cleaning will be able to take care of that. Some China flooring companies seek to increase profit by using inferior wood and skipping some of the processes that make the laminate less toxic – this saves them about 10% of the cost of the materials and creation. But it is the user’s health that suffers the most out of that.

Caution: Getting Laminate Flooring
There is no escaping the formaldehyde – it is a basic component of the laminate flooring, so if you buy that type of flooring, you will be exposed to it. The thing you have to watch out for is who you buy it from. Standard laminate flooring, manufactured by industrial regulations is not dangerous at all, it is as normal as flooring can be. What you need to watch out for are companies that seek to make shortcuts, such as the aforementioned China companies. And here are some means of being cautious:

•    Suppliers who mention customer health – these are the ones you can count on. Customer health is a leading means of selling a product in many cases and when a supplier promises a healthy item, then that supplier is probably doing everything within regulations and avoiding as many toxins as possible, such as cleaning companies using organic methods for the home cleaning.

•    Ask for fact sheets. There are companies that regulate the manufacture of certain items, such as CARB. Any company that is willing to provide a CARB 2-compliant fact sheet probably has nothing to hide because this means that everything is done with amounts of toxins and formaldehyde which are not harmful.

•    Be wary of the details. Always know what you are buying. Check for ingredients, ask questions, provide yourself with answers – many companies will try to hide harmful things behind flashy ads and more prominent products, so learn to spot the differences in quality levels.

With this in mind, you are now free to pursue your ideal laminate flooring. You should be able to find the proper type – one that will not be harmful to anybody easier with this information. Otherwise, stick to carpets and carpet cleaning – don’t let lazy house cleaning be the reason to get yourself dangerous flooring.