Wood flooring adhesive makers are rolling out responses to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action plan concerning diisocyanate, a common chemical found in small amounts in urethane glues.
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Wood flooring adhesive makers are rolling out responses to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action plan concerning diisocyanate, a common chemical found in small amounts in urethane glues.
Another name for the chemical is methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI). The EPA issued the action plan-which addresses certain chemicals instead of specific products-in April 2011, and in February 2012 it held a meeting with the American Chemistry Association to discuss possible regulatory steps for MDIs. "Diisocyanates are well known dermal and inhalation sensitizers in the workplace and have been documented to cause asthma, lung damage and, in severe cases, fatal reactions," according to the EPA.
To date, the EPA has taken no definitive regulatory action concerning MDIs, but the agency's moves thus far have prompted wood flooring adhesive makers to issue a range of position statements, and one manufacturer, Stauf Adhesives USA LLC (Memphis, Tenn.), recently announced it has reformulated its 3-gallon PUM-950 Power-Mastic adhesive and eliminated MDIs from its formula.
According to its website for MDIs, the EPA could initiate two test rules that require monitoring of uncured MDIs in consumer and commercial products, or it could regulate chemical contents of consumer and commercial products, like wood flooring adhesives, that contain MDIs.
EPA Press Officer Dale Kemery confirmed with Hardwood Floors that, later this year, his agency will initiate the "data call-in" component of the action plan, "which would require the submission of data on allegations of adverse effects and health and safety data on any product containing MDI."
In an open letter, global building products manufacturer MAPEI Corp. (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) said it "encountered a similar situation" in the European Union (EU) concerning regulation of MDIs. "The end result … was an amendment … such that all consumer products manufactured and imported into the EU containing concentrations of 0.1 percent of more MDI must include in their packaging specific types of protective gloves and additional labeling requirements. MAPEI thinks there is a strong likelihood that the USA will follow the EU with similar policy implementation in the future," the letter reads.
In a letter to customers and sales representatives, Bostik Inc. (Middleton, Mass.) said its wood flooring urethane adhesive "products do not result in any detectable exposure of MDI to applicators, others in the vicinity, or those present after application has been completed." In its own letter, MAPEI also noted that in its products, "MDI is fully dissolved in the adhesive and is not present at a level or concentration that can create a human health risk …"
In an executive summary on MDIs, W.F. Taylor Co. Inc. aka Taylor Adhesives (Fontana, Calif.), which manufactures a modified-silane-based wood flooring adhesive that does not contain MDIs, called on the EPA to enact a rule to limit or eliminate isocyanates in flooring adhesives.
Following are the letters/summary from the adhesive makers Stauf, MAPEI, Bostik and W.F. Taylor. The final document is the EPA's action plan for MDIs.
