News Articles & Press Releases Regarding MAS Certified Green™     CARB Rules Take Effect for Formaldehyde Emissions from Composite Wood Products January 1, 2009 The California Air Resources Board's (ARB) Composite Wood Air Toxic Control Measure (ATCM) was written into state law in April. The first emission standards will be implemented on January 1, 2009. This law is designed to reduce formaldehyde emissions from all composite wood products sold or produced for use in California. The law targets manufacturers of hardwood plywood (HWPW), particleboard (PB), and medium density fiberboard (MDF) and also substantially impacts fabricators, distributors, and retailers of furniture and all other finished products made with these composite wood products. The text of the final regulation, other documents, and all program information are available at: www.arb.ca.gov/toxics/compwood/compwood.htm. Compliance with the emissions standards by a composite wood mill must be verified by a Third Party Certifier (TPC) approved by ARB. Laboratories work under the control of the TPCs and don't have a direct relationship with ARB. The currently approved list of TPCs is posted at: www.arb.ca.gov/toxics/compwood/certifiers.htm. ARB has approved small-scale chamber testing according to ASTM Standard Test Method D 6007 as a secondary test method. However, there is substantial overhead associated with selecting this path as each laboratory must annually validate the secondary method against the primary method, ASTM Standard Test Method E1333 following a rigorous and costly procedure. In addition, a set of three small-scale chamber runs must be completed for each test. Nevertheless, we still believe that small-scale testing may be a practical way to meet the anticipated demand for certification testing.