Does wood contain formaldehyde?

In people’s daily lives, there are many toxic gases that affect people’s daily lives and their health. Among the many toxic gases, formaldehyde is the most harmful to the human body, because when the human body inhales too much formaldehyde, a series of conditions will occur, and in severe cases it will even affect people's lives. So, does wood contain formaldehyde?

First, does wood contain formaldehyde? Wood itself does not contain formaldehyde. The formaldehyde we are talking about is a type of VOC, which is a volatile organic compound. Harmful to the human body. It also includes benzene, radon, etc. It mainly exists in adhesives! Boards are generally bonded with adhesives, so the boards contain different levels of formaldehyde. For example, the boards for panel furniture, the boards for kitchen cabinets, and the boards for sofas. The boards involved in decoration include: core board, density board, plywood, and decorative panels, all of which contain formaldehyde to varying degrees. Natural wood does not contain formaldehyde. Artificial boards use adhesives that contain formaldehyde. The most common ones are: plywood, blockboard (wood core board), and density board. These boards all contain formaldehyde to a greater or lesser extent. It is recommended to use finger-jointed boards made by physically joining natural boards, which are more environmentally friendly.

Second, the formaldehyde content of natural wood is related to the tree species. Studies have shown that among common woods, pine has the highest formaldehyde content, followed by spruce and oak, and beech has the lowest. Scientists have also discovered a pattern that the formaldehyde content of softwood is higher than that of hardwood, which may be due to the denser texture of hardwood. In this study, the formaldehyde content of pine wood can reach up to 0.71 mg/100g, while the average formaldehyde content of beech is 0.27 mg/100g. The European E1 standard is 8 mg/100g and the E0 standard is 5 mg/100g. Therefore, the lower the expected formaldehyde content, the more prominent the tree species factor becomes. For houses with high requirements for indoor air quality, while paying attention to the glue of the boards, it is recommended to avoid using wood from coniferous trees such as pine or spruce. In the early 20th century, artificial boards were produced using natural glue. With the rise of the petrochemical industry, synthetic glue replaced it. People did this for reasons of cost, production efficiency, durability, etc. Unfortunately, the popularity of synthetic glues has led to an increasingly serious problem of indoor air pollution. Artificial boards use a large amount of glue and are used in considerable amounts in decoration, making them the primary source of indoor formaldehyde pollution.

Does wood contain formaldehyde? In order to meet consumers' demand for a healthy indoor environment, artificial board manufacturers are competing to launch low-formaldehyde or even formaldehyde-free products. Researchers have revived natural protein glue and increased its production efficiency and durability by improving the formula. Today, with oil prices soaring, the cost of soy protein glue is already lower than similar chemical synthetic glues, which gives people a glimmer of hope. It is important to remain clear that any "zero formaldehyde" words are best regarded as marketing terms, because there is no real "zero formaldehyde". This is not a nitpicking rigor, but there are reasons behind it. The "reason" is, first, the so-called "zero formaldehyde" of suppliers mostly refers to no addition of free formaldehyde and its products, or no addition of urea-formaldehyde resin. In other words, there is no formaldehyde in the "formula", which does not mean that the formaldehyde emission is zero. Second, natural wood itself will emit formaldehyde, which has nothing to do with glue. This formaldehyde comes from the natural hydrolysis process of lignin and is unavoidable.