Wood cabinets and Environment

Cabinets and countertops wood

Most of today’s kitchen wood cabinets and counter tops are made of wood coming from forests with non sustainable management; they also often involve environmentally unfriendly and toxic materials that are harmful to our health.

Beware and contribute to change forest practices. Buy cabinets and countertops made with sustainably harvested woods, and pay attention to formaldehyde and harmful emissions, that can be cause of cancer and breathing disorders…

See, for details: Cabinets and forest protection

Formaldehyde & Cabinets – the health question

Formaldehyde is a common resin used in construction materials (and namely in cabinets and cheap furniture), that can be carcinogenic and allergenic at concentrations above 0.1 ppm in air. It is considered as a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

For that reason, avoid cabinets, countertops and furniture made of particle board, plywood and MDF with formaldehyde. Look for wood cabinets and cabinets made with low or no formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) content materials. Formaldehyde is hazardous during the whole lifetime of the cabinets, and is especially dangerous when the correspondent materials are close to ovens and other heating sources, or exposed to sunlight.

Contrarily to most American particle boards, plywood and MDF, the European cabinets and furniture assure very low or no formaldehyde incidence.

See also:
How to buy custom and stock cabinets
Certified FSC Wood
Cabinet Manufacturers

 

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