OAKLAND, Calif., July 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- In the latest
environmental black eye for Lumber Liquidators, independent lab
tests show that Chinese-made flooring sold by the chain emits
formaldehyde at levels far above the level requiring cancer
warnings under California law,
according to a lawsuit filed today by Global Community Monitor.
Lumber Liquidators (NYSE:LL) claims on its website that all of
its flooring comes from mills certified as compliant with
California's standards for
formaldehyde. Plaintiffs conducted more than 50 tests of
Lumber Liquidators' Chinese-made laminate flooring, using a variety
of different testing methods and sample batches. Test
results showed average initial formaldehyde exposures over 100
times above the amount allowed to be sold without a warning label
under Proposition 65, California's
main toxics law.
Formaldehyde is a common ingredient in the glue used in laminate
flooring and other pressed-wood products, including those sold by
Lumber Liquidators. During and after installation, it is released
as a gas that causes burning eyes, nose and throat irritation,
coughing, headaches, dizziness, joint pain and nausea. At
long-term exposure, formaldehyde is listed as a known cause of
cancer in humans by both the federal government and the
State of California.
Proposition 65 requires products containing chemicals that cause
cancer to carry a warning label if the levels exceed the so-called
"safe harbor" level. But none of the Lumber Liquidators samples
tested had a warning label on the box, none of the stores where
samples were purchased had a Proposition 65 warning, and no
warnings were provided at the time of purchase over the
internet.
"The levels of formaldehyde our tests found in Lumber
Liquidators' laminate flooring are astounding and alarming," said
Denny Larson, executive director of
Global Community Monitor. "It's unconscionable that Lumber
Liquidators would sell this product to customers to install in
their homes without informing families of the potential health
risks involved, especially since they make a point of bragging
about how environmentally safe it is."
The Proposition 65 complaint, filed today in state superior
court in Oakland, says: "Without
exception, the Lumber Liquidators products produced in
China that Plaintiffs tested produced in China emitted formaldehyde at far higher rates
than those manufactured in Europe
or North America—on
average, Chinese products emitted at 350% the rate of
European/North American products."
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of international
environmental scandals concerning Lumber Liquidators. Last
September, U.S. authorities raided Lumber Liquidators'
headquarters in Toano, Va.,
and seized company records to investigate possible violations of
the Lacey Act, which prohibits the import of illegally harvested
hardwood. A month later, the nonprofit Environmental Investigation
Agency charged that Lumber Liquidators sells timber illegally
logged from forests in the Russian Far East. Two months ago,
Greenpeace linked Lumber Liquidators to illegal logging in the
Amazon.
Lumber Liquidators' formaldehyde problem came to light a year
ago by an article on the blog Seeking Alpha by an investor named
Xuhua Zhou, who conducted his own
tests in which one sample of Lumber Liquidators engineered wood
flooring tested at three and a half times the level allowed under
California Air Resources Board (CARB) standards. Global Community
Monitoring was joined in the lawsuit by Sunshine Park, a firm affiliated with private
investment companies that have substantial short financial exposure
to Lumber Liquidators. Sunshine Park
and its affiliates financed the extensive testing and have
conducted substantial on-the-ground investigation regarding Chinese
laminate flooring production.
Xuhua Zhou wrote to CARB about
his findings a year ago but the agency apparently took no
enforcement action. Proposition 65 allows citizens to bring suit to
enforce the law. Under its provisions, Lumber Liquidators could be
hit with penalties of $2,500 a day
for every box of laminate flooring sold in California—a figure that could
reach tens of billions of dollars.
Michael Lozeau of Lozeau Drury
LLP, an Oakland law firm
representing Global Community Monitor and Sunshine Park, said: "Lumber Liquidators boasts
'big savings on flooring.' But Lumber Liquidators' low prices
appear to be due in part to its business practice of selling
inexpensive, largely Chinese-sourced products that violate
California formaldehyde standards
without proper labeling."
With 344 stores in 46 states and Canada, Lumber Liquidators had sales of more
than $1 billion in 2013. Its stock
has plummeted in recent weeks, a drop the company attributed in
part to "Certain mills (experiencing) production delays . . . as we
continued to enhance our quality assurance requirements." That may
mean the company is looking into the problem with Chinese mills,
but it continues to sell laminate flooring products with high
levels of formaldehyde.
Contacts:
|
Bill Walker, (510)
759-9911
|
|
Denny
Larson, Executive Director, (415) 845-4705
|
|
Michael Lozeau, Esq.,
Lozeau Drury LLP, (510) 836-4200
|
SOURCE Global Community Monitor