Colette Lagercrantz

MDF, or Medium Density Fiberboard, is a type of composite wood product. It is produced from both hardwoods and softwoods broken down into fibers and combined with wax and a resin (glue). It is formed into panels using heat and pressure. Other composite wood products include particleboard and hardwood plywood.

What is the concern about MDF?

The biggest concern is exposure to formaldehyde gas that is emitted from the product. The glue used in MDF is usually urea formaldehyde (UF). UF is a solid chemical made from a mixture of urea and formaldehyde. Extra formaldehyde may be added to the urea to make a stronger bond. The more extra formaldehyde there is, the more formaldehyde will be trapped in the wood and later emitted as a gas. MDF made with UF may emit formaldehyde gas for months or years after it is manufactured. Over the last few years it has become more common for manufacturers of MDF to:

Formaldehyde: what are the health effects?

Prolonged exposure to formaldehyde can result in cancer, including nasal and sinus cancer and leukemia. These cancers take several years or decades to develop (usually 10-15 years). Working eight hours daily for 40 years at the level of the government standard would give you a risk of about 2 in a thousand for getting cancer*.

When formaldehyde is present in the air, some individuals may experience adverse effects such as watery eyes; burning sensations in the eyes, nose, and throat; coughing; wheezing; nausea; and skin irritation.

Repeated exposure to formaldehyde may cause bronchitis or skin and asthma-like allergy. Some people are very sensitive to formaldehyde, whereas others have no reaction to the same level of exposure. There is limited evidence that formaldehyde may damage the developing fetus and affect female fertility.

Wood dust: what are the health effects?

Wood dust, especially from hardwood, causes nasal and sinus cancer in woodworkers. Some of the species known to cause cancer include the hardwoods oak, mahogany, beech, walnut, birch, elm and ash. As with formaldehyde, these cancers take years to develop and generally require significant, ongoing exposure for a long period of time.

Wood dust particles tend to settle mostly in the upper airways where they are trapped and can cause eye irritation, nasal dryness or irritation, prolonged colds, nose bleeding and obstruction, sneezing, sinusitis and headaches. Some particles may penetrate deep into the respiratory track causing asthma, chronic bronchitis and hypersensitivity pneumonia.

Skin rash and irritation is the most common health hazard associated with wood dust. It can be caused by abrasion, chemical irritation or by an allergic mechanism known as sensitization. Workers who become sensitized can get more and more sensitive to small amounts of dust over time.

Urea formaldehyde and other resins: what are the health effects?

Urea formaldehyde is a solid substance that has the potential to cause asthma and skin allergies. The dust from other glues may also have irritating or sensitizing properties. However, there is little documentation on whether sanding or cutting material made from these resins has actually resulted in health effects from the resins, alone.

What kind of formaldehyde exposures are carpenters expected to get?

Exposures to formaldehyde gas from MDF will vary greatly depending on the amount and effectiveness of ventilation, personal protection (such as respirator use), process (sanding emits more dust than sawing), type of tools (power tools generate more dust than manual tools), type of adhesive (UF is much worse than melamine or phenol-formaldehyde), environmental conditions (high humidity and moisture causes UF to break down into formaldehyde gas), the amount of free formaldehyde in the product, and the amount and hours of the work performed.

Most studies on workers’ exposure to formaldehyde from wood paneling have been done in manufacturing plants. We did not find studies of formaldehyde exposures of carpenters working with MDF in the field. Here are some numbers to put exposures in perspective. The effect of ventilation can be seen in a recent study of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailers which found average formaldehyde levels were ten times higher when there was no ventilation: 1.04 (closed up), 0.39 (air conditioned) and 0.09 ppm (windows open).

What regulations are there on formaldehyde emissions from MDF?

Despite rumors that MDF is banned in some countries, we did not find this to be so. Japan and the European Union have had MDF emission standards for years.

In 2007, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) issued regulations to cap formaldehyde emissions from composite panels used in finished consumer products. Like most emission standards, they are based on environmental concerns. Most U.S. manufacturers are following the CARB rules. Currently (Phase 1) they limit emissions from MDF to 0.21 ppm inside a special test chamber. By January 1, 2011 (Phase 2), the limit will drop to approximately half that amount (0.11 ppm) in all MDF except thin MDF (such as is used in the backing for laminate flooring). Phase 2 for thin MDF begins in January 2012. CARB also has limits for particleboard and hardwood plywood.

CARB also approves paneling with no added formaldehyde (NAF) and ultra-low emitting formaldehyde (ULEF).

CARB approved paneling and molding must have a product label or stamp. Retail stores should also be able to provide you with a unit label that contains this information. Most US and Canadian manufacturers and some offshore manufacturers are certifying their products sold nationally to comply with CARB. Lumber mills with this certification and fact sheets on their regulation can be viewed on CARB’s website: http://www.arb.ca.gov/toxics/compwood/compwood.htm.

The USEPA published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on regulating formaldehyde emissions from pressed wood products under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TOSCA), in December 2008. U.S. Senate bill, S 1660, the Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act, would require the USEPA to adopt the CARB regulations nationally, under TOSCA. The USEPA is expected to revise their cancer and non-cancer risk estimates for formaldehyde by 2012.

What are the best practices for reducing my exposure to dust and formaldehyde from MDF?

What are my rights with regard to MDF?

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): The OSHA Formaldehyde Standard requires your employer to conduct air monitoring or have other documentation that shows exposure limits will not be exceeded. Workers’ average daily and peak exposure must be below 0.75 parts per million (ppm) and the peak exposure must be below 2 ppm. If greater than 0.1 ppm in the air is expected, then the employer must enforce labeling, education and Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) requirements of the OSHA Hazard Communications standard.

OSHA does not have a wood dust or urea formaldehyde standard. OSHA may rely on The American Conference of Governmental and Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) guidelines for wood dust when evaluating a wood dust hazard. ACGIH recommends average exposure to inhalable wood dust be kept below 1 milligram per cubic meter (mg/m3); and half that amount for western red cedar.

You and your union have the right to copies of monitoring results. You have the right to request an MSDS from your employer. You or your union can file an OSHA complaint if you suspect a violation (http://www.osha.gov/as/opa/worker/complain.html). A small business employer can request a free consultation from OSHA to evaluate a hazard without the risk of enforcement proceedings (http://www.osha.gov/dcsp/smallbusiness/consult.html).

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH): You, your employer, or your union have the right to request an evaluation of your workplace if people are exposed to a combination of exposures that are not all regulated by OSHA (see http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/hhe/HHEprogram.html).

Where Can I Get Treatment or More Information?

If you think you may be suffering from overexposure to chemicals, construction dust or any work-related illness or injury, contact an occupational health clinic in your area to request an evaluation (see http://www.aoec.org/directory.htm). They can also help you obtain more information on workplace health and safety. The Mount Sinai-IJ Selikoff Center has three clinics in the New York metropolitan area and adjacent counties (see below).

OSHA has information on controlling wood dust http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/wooddust/index.html and formaldehyde http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/formaldehyde/index.html.

We wish to acknowledge the assistance of the Fraternal Order of Woodworkers and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America in preparing this fact sheet. April 2010

MOUNT SINAI – IRVING J. SELIKOFF CENTER FOR OCCUPATIONAL & ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE

The Bengaluru-headquartered startup claims it has already amassed over 1 million downloads in Brazil. Analytics company Sensor Tower corroborates the claim, saying the app saw 973,000 installs from the App Store and Play Store between November 14 and 20. Sensor Tower’s charts for both App Store and Play Store indicate that Koo was the top app in the country during the period.

A lot of users might be joining the platform to participate in a joke, though. Koo sounds like a word in Portuguese that means butthole. So, there are plenty of backside-related jokes on both Twitter and Koo with even brands like gaming company Razer participating in it. Koo also acknowledged the joke and explained that it just means the “sound of this cute yellow bird.”

Over the last few days, Koo has added native support for Portuguese on the app and has been working with onboarding brands like Burger King.

Within hours of launching, Koo users in Brazil faced issues accessing the site. The social network also had bugs like users not being able to see their followers.

Koo is also facing moderation and security problems after its Brazil launch. Hackers took control of popular influencer Felipe Neto’s Koo account for a while. The attackers posted that they were warning users of the social network’s lack of security. The company explained on its Portuguese-language Twitter account that it “relaxed our security for the last 2 hours to resolve the OTP issue” and all user data is safe.

In a separate thread, Neto said that the social network’s founder got in touch with him and resolved the account takeover issue within minutes. He is currently one of the most popular Brazilian accounts on the platform with more than 500,000 followers.

What’s more, local media reports pointed out that many users have already created fake profiles impersonating politicians like former president Jair Bolsonaro. The report noted that users have made profiles in the name of right-wing activist Carla Zambelli, who has been banned from all social media platforms. Koo’s own handles on Twitter are not verified, so it is easy to come across an impersonating account with thousands of followers and mistake it for an official account.

The company said it’s banning fake profiles while verifying legitimate accounts. For its own accounts, the social network said it follows the nomenclature of KooForCountry — for example, KooForIndia or KooForBrazil — but it’s hard to make that out just by looking at the handle. The India-based company said it has applied for verification on Twitter. However, given the current uncertain state of the verification program on the Elon Musk-led platform, there’s no definite timeline for when it will get a verified mark.

The platform seems to be struggling with moderation issues as well. Several tweets suggested that Koo is rife with child sexual abuse material (CSAM). In some tweets, Koo said that it is actively blocking these accounts. Under the country’s laws, CSAM is a crime and offenders can face punitive action. It told TechCrunch in an email that using machine-learning-based tools it has removed 3,000 pieces of content in the last few days. Plus, it is blocking users who interact with such content.

The company noted that to handle moderation, it is in the process of hiring folks who are well versed in Brazilian Portuguese. Until the hiring is completed, the company is relying on automated tools with translation to catch content that breaches its rules.

If not then, you will have to approach your bank and apprise the manager about the wrong transaction The bank will check the details of the

This is a guest post by Clare Feikert, foreign law specialist for the United Kingdom at the Law Library of Congress.

“Instinctively he and we knew then that what we had not use for was nonetheless of worth”, Environment Committee, Second report, Recycling, 1993-94, HC 63-i, at 14.

The “rag and bone man,” also known as the bone-grubber, bone-picker, rag-gatherer, bag board, and totter, has been in existence in England since the Middle Ages; he would lead a horse and wagon around villages calling out for rags and bones.  The trade was a precursor for modern-day recycling by collecting unwanted items and selling them for reuse; it was immortalized in the British sitcom Steptoe and Son, which was later remade in the U.S. as Sanford and Son.

The bones collected would be sold and then boiled to create glue and fertilizer.  The rags would be sold to rag merchants, who paid the rag and bone man by the weight and quality of the rags they collected.  The rag and bone man was not held in high regard and his business was considered to be one of a “disagreeable nature” (The Sanitary Record, Oct. 5, 1877 at 217).   Rags were reused to create cloth, known as “shoddy,” and later became an important part of the paper making industry. (B. W. Clapp, An Environmental History of Britain Since the Industrial Revolution (1994), at 194.)

During the Victorian era, some laws were enacted that impacted the operation of the rag and bone man.  Section 112 of the Public Health Act 1875  provided that it was an offence to establish an offensive trade in any local district without the written consent of that district.  To do so was punishable with a fine of £50 (approximately US$65), which at the time was a substantial sum of money.  While the rag and bone trade was not specified in that section as an offensive trade, Section 113 of the Act enabled local authorities to prohibit certain trades they deemed offensive and enabled them to impose a penalty on traders who commenced such businesses without their written consent.  In 1911, in accordance with Sections 113 and 112 of the Public Health Act 1875, a local authority declared that the trade of rag and bone dealer was an offensive trade and should be prohibited “in order to prevent or diminish the noxious or injurious effects” (Mayo v Stazicker [1921] 2 KB 196).

The Provision of Gifts for Scraps

It was customary for the rag and bone man to provide balloons and other trinket gifts to children in return for their items. However, as medical knowledge developed and the causes of the spread of disease became more widely understood, the government included a provision in the Public Health Act 1925, which provided that it was an offence to give any person “in connexion with, the business of a rag and bone merchant any article of food or any balloon or other toy.” (Section 73).  In 1928, six cases were brought under this section in the city of Coventry.   This provision was later repealed and replaced by Section 154 of the Public Health Act 1936, contained under the heading “Prevention, notification and treatment of disease,” which prohibited individuals that “collect[] or deal[] in rags, old clothes or similar articles” from selling or delivering any article to children under the age of fourteen years while engaged in his work duties.  There were a number of cases heard in the magistrates’ court of people violating this provision.  In Daly v Cannon, the rag and bone man was caught by a sanitary inspector handing a live goldfish to a child under the age of fourteen and a case was brought against him.  The court considered whether a goldfish was an article within the meaning of Section 154(1) of the Public Health Act and noted the ingenuity of rag and bone collectors of requiring children to bring their own bowls as a receptacle in which to put the goldfish, as handing out goldfish in bags or bowls would clearly be considered an article and there would be no ambiguity over the application of the section. The judge reasoned that people using ordinary language would be disinclined to refer to a goldfish as an article, and that as a guilty judgment would result in a penalty fine of £5 (approximately U.S. $6.50), the court should apply the “very well-known canon of construction that if one has an ambiguity one always applies the construction which is most favorable to an accused person and a construction which will not involve the imposition of a penalty.”  The court therefore held that a goldfish was not an article within the meaning of Section 154 of the Public Health Act and no law had been broken. (Id. Per Lord Goddard C.J. at 264)

The Disappearance of the Rag and Bone Man

As time passed, the collection of rags and bones fell to the side due to the knowledge that these items contributed to the spread of disease, the provision of trash men by the local council, and the development of wood pulp used for paper.  Despite these changes, the rag and bone man continued his walk, calling instead for “any old iron,” which could be sold as scrap metal.  By the mid-eighties, there was a drop in value of scrap metal, and local councils established recycling centers at the local dump, reducing the income the rag and bone man could make along with the demand for his services and as a tradesman.  At that time, the rag and bone man mostly disappeared.

The Return of the Rag and Bone Man

By the late 1990s environmental concerns brought recycling and reusing back to the mainstream and the surge of prices for scrap metal in the mid 2000s beckoned the return of the rag and bone man. This time the trade was modernized by the use of a van, and his presence was announced by megaphone.  It wasn’t just the replacement of the horse and cart that had changed the way in which the rag and bone man worked; the laws under which he must operate are vastly different.

Modern Day Trash Regulations – From Cradle to Grave

The disposal of trash is now highly regulated, with the government following a waste management policy that has a “cradle to grave approach” to help ensure the proper disposal of trash.  A witness statement in an Environmental Audit Committee expressed concern that these regulations were overburdening the informal recycling sector and meant that people would be more likely to simply throw things in the trash that could otherwise have been recycled in the regular trash.  The Environmental Audit Committee responded that the paper trail required by its waste management program was essential to make sure trash was disposed of properly, and that it was using new technologies to make it easier for individuals to comply with the regulatory requirements.  (House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee. Environmental crime: Fly-tipping, fly posting, litter, graffiti and noise, 2003-4, HC 445, Ev. 30).

Waste management regulations require individuals who transport, buy, sell, or dispose of trash to have a waste carrier, broker or dealer license.  Many rag and bone men have failed to comply with the requirements to obtain this license, and they are being caught, prosecuted and fined.  In one instance, the rag and bone man was caught shouting “any rag or bone” out of his van and was heard by an Environmental Enforcement Officer.  The man claimed he was calling for his dog and the trash in the back of his truck were his personal items.  The court did not believe him and he was found guilty of operating without a waste carrier’s license and fined £500 (approximately U.S. $650) and required to pay £1500 (approximately U.S. $2000) in costs and a £15 (approximately U.S. $20) victim surcharge.

The UK has experienced a large rise in fly tipping, which is the unlawful disposal of trash, frequently in spots of the bucolic English countryside, causing not only a blighted view but also health and safety issues.  Fly tipping is a criminal offense under section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 punishable by a fine of up to £50,000 (approximately U.S. $65,500) and/or five years imprisonment.  Local authorities also have the ability to issue on the spot penalties of up to £400 (approximately U.S. $515) for anyone caught fly tipping.

There have been many reported cases of the modern-day rag and bone men violating fly tipping laws, which occurs in part as licensed waste traders will no longer accept trash from them in order to comply with the cradle to grave waste management policy.  The rag and bone men are reported to then unlawfully dispose of the trash they have collected, leaving the home owners who paid them to remove the trash liable to pay the hefty fine for fly tipping if the trash can be traced back to them.  This has made many individuals hesitant to use the modern-day rag and bone man to dispose of their unwanted items and trash.

Tracking Scrap Metal (and taxes)

As the rag and bone man’s earnings were typically in cash, they frequently were not disclosed to the tax man. In 2011 the High Court heard the case of Hackett v Crown Prosecution Service in which an individual’s trade was described as a rag and bone man, and the court did not express any surprise over the lack of tax returns or accounts as this was “not surprising for somebody who is a rag and bone man.” (Id. ¶ 49)  The failure of some rag and bone men to disclose their earnings on tax returns and accounts was incidentally addressed when the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 was enacted. This act was introduced in the wake of a vast increase in the theft of metal, which was reportedly costing the UK economy £220 million (approximately U.S. $285 million) per year, and impacting communities as railroads, churches and memorials were ransacked by thieves seeking to extract metal components.  The act requires any scrap metal dealers to be licensed by the local council and for these dealers to verify and retain the name and address of the sellers of scrap metal, and to pay the sellers by depositing the income into the sellers’ bank accounts, rather than providing them with a cash payment.  It is now an offense for a scrap metal dealer to pay cash, punishable with a fine of up to £5,000 (approximately U.S. $6,500).

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