Chinese Plywood Leaks Formaldehyde|At Unsafe Levels, Oregon Business Says

SALEM, ORE. (CN) - Obeche plywood imported from China exudes formaldehyde at as much as 12 times the legal limit, and forced an Oregon business to replace the wood in emergency response trailers it provided for North Carolina, Custom Trailerwerks claims in Marion County Court. It sued KB Pacific and others for $123,000, the cost of replacing the plywood in three trailers.

Trailerwerks claims the defendants certified that the Obeche plywood emitted no more than 0.75 parts per million of formaldehyde. But after building eight trailers and delivering them to North Carolina, it says, an independent lab found that the wood emitted formaldehyde at 2.8 ppm to 8.7 ppm. Trailerwerks says it had to rebuild three of the trailers, which cost it $123,000.

Here are the defendants: KB Pacific LLC dba Keith Brown Building Materials, Keith Brown Lumberyard, Columbia Forest Products, and Lumber Products. Brown sold Trailerwerks the plywood, the other defendants imported it from China, the complaint states.

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