Healthy at home?
Wang, who runs a home inspection company in Jinan, cooperated with QLTV, a local television channel, and conducted indoor air quality checks at 100 households in 11 Shandong cities in November.
The survey showed that only three of the households checked had safe levels of formaldehyde. They were all simply decorated, with just floor tiles and solid wood furniture.
China in 2001 issued formaldehyde emission limits for domestic wood-based panels and finishing products. It says that the formaldehyde emissions of MDF and particleboard used for indoor decorations shouldn't exceed 9 mg/100g (see table) and the emissions of plywood shouldn't exceed 1.5 mg/L.
However, indoor pollution didn't decrease after these regulations were released. Song said their survey about 10 years ago showed that air quality in about 60 percent of newly decorated houses was substandard.
"But the situation didn't improve. Today's surveys in some regions show that the ratio has risen to 80 percent," Song lamented.
Wang believes that the substandard quality of furniture and building materials is the major reason. "There is a huge variety of decorating materials. The makers all claim that they are environmentally friendly. But the facts are always dissatisfactory," he said.
Wang and his colleagues recently surveyed six kinds of compound wood panels and found that none of them met emission standards. "The toxic substance emission standards are there, but implementation is poor," he lamented.
However, Song disagrees. He said that the authorities are concerned about the issue and check and update the list of rule-breaking manufacturers nearly every month.
He argued that the major problem is excessive and lavish decoration. In addition, to pack more rooms into a building, real estate developers tend to lower ceilings, thus room sizes become smaller and the density of air pollution gets more severe.
Some media also blamed the problem on outdated formaldehyde emissions limits. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the country has changed its formaldehyde emission standards in recent years. Their regulation says that particleboard's formaldehyde emissions shouldn't exceed 0.09 ppm (parts per million). The Worker's Daily claimed this is one 1,000th of the Chinese limit in a report last month.
However, experts say the numbers can't be directly compared due to different testing methods. Song added that many Chinese manufacturers have upgraded their technology and voluntarily follow stricter standards than the national limit.
Wang doesn't think raising the standards alone can solve the problems in China.
"The prices for good quality products will be high, and it will take time for most people to accept them. Besides, manufacturers can always find ways to cheat consumers," he noted.
