The Consumer Product Safety Commission is beginning a nationwide recall-to-test program of Chinese-made laminate sold in Lumber Liquidators stores between February 2012 and May 2015.
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The Consumer Product Safety Commission is beginning a nationwide recall-to-test program of Chinese-made laminate sold in Lumber Liquidators stores between February 2012 and May 2015.
The CPSC’s recall-to-test program is a continuation of the home testing kit program Lumber Liquidators began offering its customers in the weeks after a “60 Minutes” investigation raised questions about the formaldehyde emissions of the company’s Chinese-made laminate. Consumers with Lumber Liquidators Chinese-made laminate installed in their homes should contact Lumber Liquidators for a free testing kit. If elevated levels of formaldehyde are discovered, the company will pay to remedy the situation.
Lumber Liquidators has tested air quality in more than 17,000 homes to date and contracted third-party certified laboratories to conduct formaldehyde emissions tests for around 1,300 of those customers’ floors. According to the CPSC, no floor tested above the remediation guidelines.
The effort comes at the conclusion of CPSC’s evaluation into the safety of laminate flooring imported by Lumber Liquidators from China. The CPSC “substantially” concurred with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s study, which found the installation of this type of flooring in a home with elevated formaldehyde levels might increase eye, nose and throat irritation, and may be associated with a small increase in cancer risk.
The agreement between CPSC and Lumber Liquidators also stipulates that the company will not resume sales of the Chinese-made laminate product at the center of the investigation. That product, totaling more than 22 million board feet, was moved to a warehouse in Tennessee after Lumber Liquidators halted sales in May 2015, according to a recent Lumber Liquidators SEC filing. Requests made to transfer, recondition, relabel, sell or export the inventory will require CPSC approval.
The CPSC’s conclusion, released at the end of the day on June 16, caused Lumber Liquidators’ stock to increase from $13.25 to $15.77 at close of market the following day. At press time, it was trading at $15.64, still almost 80 percent below the price before the “60 Minutes” investigation was announced in February 2015.
