The US EPA has announced a new compliance date for formaldehyde emissions in composite wood products. The compliance date of December 12, 2018 has been brought forward to June 1, 2018.
In December 2016, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a Final Rule to implement the Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act (the Act).?This Final Rule includes provisions relating to, among other things, formaldehyde emission standards in hardwood plywood composite core or veneer core (HWPW-CC or VC), particleboards (PBs) and medium-density fiberboards (MDFs), third-party certification programs, incentives for products manufactured from ultra-low emitting formaldehyde resins (ULEF) and no added-formaldehyde-based resins (NAF), product labeling, Accreditation Bodies (ABs) and Third-party Certifiers (TPCs). The formaldehyde emission standards are identical to those in Phase 2 of the Air Toxic Control Measure (ATCM) to control formaldehyde emissions under the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
The aforementioned Final Rule was going to be implemented in phases, starting December 2017, but was extended to December 12, 2018. This extension, published in the Final Rule at Federal Register Number 2017-19455, resulted in a legal challenge in the US District Court for the Northern District of California (the Court) to address whether the extended compliance date to implement the formaldehyde emission standards exceeds the EPA