MEDITE READY WITH CARB 2 COMPLIANT MDF

As you are hopefully aware Rearo, where possible, continue to promote the use of Medite MDF in our products. Within the industry there remain arguments against the use of MDF in favour of traditional plywood - the arguments against MDF include the use of Formaldehyde.

At Rearo we firmly believe that our use of exterior grade Medite is the best environmental solution, being sourced only from sustainable forests in Ireland, and hopefully the article below will give added confidence in your future specification of Medite MDF products.

Formaldehyde, a component in the raw material of the resins used to bind wood fibres by wood based composites industry, has long been subject to debate. With continued and growing interest in 'healthy buildings', product emissions and indoor air quality, this is now a major live issue for panel products in Europe, the USA and Japan, all of which have developed their own standards in response.

Europe has led the way on formaldehyde reduction with the E1 standard but demands from the market, home product retailers and regulation coming from California have resulted in the call for stricter standards on MDF and chipboard producers than are currently being applied in Europe. The Californian Air Resources Board CARB system (which measures airborne emissions rather than the amount of the formaldehyde in the board) is emerging as the standard in the marketplace.

In the USA, the Californian CARB 1 regulation came into effect in January 2009 and, whilst not yet a national regulation in the US, is already being adopted 'de-facto' by all US states, and several international home products retailers who are heavily dependent on composites are also developing formaldehyde reduction strategies. When the final limits are fully in place by 2012, the regulation will establish the toughest production standard in the world for formaldehyde emissions from composite wood panels.

Medite, part of the panel products division of Coillte - the Irish forestry and forest products company, is an industry pioneer and has long been at the forefront of 'low formaldehyde' innovation in Europe. 1987 saw the introduction of Medite E1 and a few years later, the launch of 'Medite Ecologique', a specialist zero-added formaldehyde product which, since its introduction, has been widely specified for environmentally sensitive interior applications such as museums, laboratories, art galleries and schools. Following a recent 16 million euro investment in new technology and equipment to improve production facilities and refiner capabilities at its plant in Clonmel in Ireland, Medite continues to be able to respond quickly to constantly evolving regulations. Now, Medite has the ability to manufacture MDF panels which have been certified in compliance with the emission standards of CARB 2; 18 months before the CARB 2 regulation becomes compulsory in the US. This also means that Medite is able to produce MDF which meets the EPF-S guideline standards currently being developed in Europe.

In response to the growing market demands for reduced formaldehyde emissions from MDF panels, Medite's managing director, Joe Kennedy, says "Our customers continuously demand that we provide panels which meet the highest international standards. We are now seeing a growing demand for MDF which is in compliance, not just with the current CARB 1 standard that came out this year, but also with the much more rigorous CARB 2 standard. Medite provides the assurance needed by our customers in the form of MDF produced to CARB 2 standards which we can produce to order, and we are now one of the first manufacturers able to satisfy this
growing demand. Meeting these new 'best in class' levels is a great step forward and to do it so far in advance of the 2011 US regulation deadline is a massive achievement for the technical and production teams at Medite."