Formaldheyde: Catas in the official list of Epa

On July 12, Catas was officially admitted to the Third Party Certifier list (http://bit.ly/2tPug3K) recognized by EPA (the US Environmental Protection Agency) that, among its tasks, carries out also tests and certifications on formaldehyde emissions from wood based panels. This recognition reaffirms a consolidated fact since Catas has already been formally recognized as an authorized laboratory. Actually EPA has simply expanded throughout all the US the national standard in force in California since 2009 and emanated by Carb (California Air Resources Board), which had already recognized Catas among the 43 laboratories in the world able to certify such emissions. In any case, this is a further recognition of the expertise and credibility of Catas, which once again is offering a new service to the wood and furniture sector: from next December manufacturers, importers, distributors and transformer of wood based panels must comply with the following well-defined limits if they want to operate in American territory: 0.05 parts per million (ppm) for plywood panels; 0.09 ppm for particle boards; 0.11 ppm for Mdf panels and 0.13 ppm for thin Mdf panels (up to 8 mm). We remember that the “Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood” adds some new restrictions to the California standard: it will cover, for example, veneered panels, which will have to meet the limits defined for plywood depending on the type of adhesive used to bond the covering material.