EPA to Hold Public Meeting on Issues With Composite Wood Formaldehyde Standards

The Environmental Protection Agency will hold a public meeting June 28 at EPA headquarters in Washington to discuss technical issues related to its new formaldehyde standards for composite wood products. “The meeting will inform EPA’s potential development of a proposed rule to address these technical issues and to further align the rule requirements with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) Airborne Toxic Control Measures (ATCM) Phase II program,” the agency said. The technical issues “surround the testing and certification of composite wood products under the final rule, including correlation of test methods, equivalence of test methods, treatment of test data, and sampling requirements under EPA’s final rule,” it said. Though intended for panel producers and third-party certifiers, “fabricators, distributors and retailers who are affected by the Formaldehyde Emission Standards for Composite Wood Products final rule may also be interested in this meeting,” EPA said. A federal court recently established new compliance dates for the regulations, issued in 2016, with new emissions standards, record-keeping and labeling provisions set to take effect June 1, and import certification requirements in March 2019 (see 1803140035).