Lumber Liquidators is under fire after a \u201c60 Minutes\u2019\u2019 expose revealed retailer hardware flooring company sells\u00a0laminate hardwood flooring containing amounts of formaldehyde that\u00a0are illegal under California law. \u00a0\u201c60 Minutes\u201d journalists\u00a0discovered Lumber Liquidators\u2019 facilities in China were illegally labeling laminate hardwood flooring as legally\u00a0compliant after they traveled to the sites manufacturing the laminate hardwood flooring.<\/p>\n
Formaldehyde is a known cancer-causing agent<\/strong>. \u00a0Symptoms of formaldehyde exposure range from nose and throat irritation in mild cases to developing asthma or leukemia in instances of prolonged exposure. \u00a0Formaldehyde is present in the glue used to bind wood particles together in cheap laminated hardwood floorboards. \u00a0The laminate tops of the floorboards helps keep most, but not all, of the formaldehyde from escaping into the air.<\/p>\n \u201c60 Minutes\u201d investigators sent floorboard samples collected from the Chinese factories and retail stores in the United States to third party laboratories for testing. \u00a0Independent analysis of the floorboards revealed the product\u2019s non-compliance with California\u2019s environmental regulations. \u00a0While it is legal for for laminate flooring sold in California to contain formaldehyde, it must meet state formaldehyde emissions standards set forth by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).<\/p>\n Members of Congress have asked the Consumer Product Safety Commission to investigate\u00a0how much executives at Lumber Liquidators knew about the formaldehyde-tainted floorboards. \u00a0Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida asked\u00a0the Federal Trade Commission and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct their own testing of laminate hardwood floorboards manufactured for Lumber Liquidators.<\/p>\n The outcry for investigations into Lumber Liquidators\u2019 formaldehyde-laced floorboards is just the latest in a series of troubles for the company. \u00a0In September 2013, Lumber Liquidators\u2019 warehouses were raided by federal investigators under suspicion the company was buying illegally-harvested Russian timber from Chinese distributors. \u00a0The U.S. Department of Justice may seek criminal charges against the company for purchasing the illegal Russian lumber.<\/p>\n Lumber Liquidators is facing civil suits related to the Department of Justice\u2019s impeding criminal charges against the company under the Lacey Act for buying illegal Russian timber. \u00a0Class action lawsuits across the country are cropping up as investors claim Lumber Liquidators\u2019 board chairman and CEO dumped almost $19 million worth of stock<\/strong> before news of the federal investigation broke.<\/p>\n Stock prices for Lumber Liquidators have reached a two-year low, depreciating almost 60% since late February 2015. \u00a0Lumber Liquidators\u2019 stock was trading at just under $120 in November 2013 but in the wake of the investigation into purchases of illegal timber, selling formaldehyde-laced floorboards, and allegations of insider trading, the Toano, Virginia-based company\u2019s public valuation has plunged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Illegal levels of formaldehyde discovered in Chinese-made laminate flooring Lumber Liquidators is under fire after a \u201c60 Minutes\u2019\u2019 expose revealed retailer hardware flooring company sells\u00a0laminate hardwood flooring containing amounts of formaldehyde that\u00a0are illegal under California law. \u00a0\u201c60 Minutes\u201d journalists\u00a0discovered Lumber Liquidators\u2019 facilities in China were illegally labeling laminate hardwood flooring as legally\u00a0compliant after they traveled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Lumber Liquidators Accused of Selling Formaldehyde-Laced Products","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1096"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6296,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions\/6296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cochranfirm.com\/washington-dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Lumber Liquidators facing federal investigations and class action lawsuits<\/b><\/h3>\n