This one made me ill. The
L.A. Times is running a story about the United States becoming the market of choice for products that are illegal in other countries due to chemical regulations. Cheap plywood from China has been banned in other countries because it emits formaldehyde gas so it is being shipped over here for use in cabinets and furniture. I am all for a free market economy, but some part of me wonders why a product not even fit for Communist China is readily peddled to unwary Americans. The levels of formaldehyde very well may be negligible, but that doesn't mean I want to be breathing it all day. FTA:
Michael Wilson, a professor at UC Berkeley's Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, said the United States is becoming a "dumping ground" for consumer goods that are unwanted and illegal in much of the world. Wilson warned earlier this year in a report commissioned by the California Legislature that "the United States has fallen behind globally in the move toward cleaner technologies."
It begs the question, why not err on the side of caution?