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Industry Update { Noteworthy developments impacting the kitchen and bath market } KCMA Formally Challenges EPA Proposal On Emissions Reston, VA — The Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association has formally challenged several aspects of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposed rule regarding federal formaldehyde emission standards for composite wood products. According to the Reston, VA-based KCMA, it challenged the EPA over its proposed new program in comments fled in early October. The KCMA supported the creation of a federal formaldehyde emission standards program in 2010, with the expectation that the EPA would promulgate standards that mirrored the California Air Resources Board (CARB) regulation aimed at reducing formaldehyde emissions from composite wood products. "Most significant for the cabinet industry and fabricators, the KCMA expected EPA to exclude 'laminated products' – for example, veneered hardwood plywood – produced by fabricators and their suppliers for use in made-toorder fnished products from the broad defnition of HWPW," said KCMA Executive Vice President Dick Titus. "The single most costly and burdensome aspect of EPA's proposed rule is the agency's decision to disregard CARB on the treatment of 'laminated products,'" Titus said. "Instead of following the [standard] as intended by Congress, EPA dramatically expanded the requirements. This represents the single most signifcant variation from the approach taken by the current California rule." According to the KCMA, Congress gave EPA authority to adopt the approach of the California standard. Instead, EPA has proposed to, in efect, ban adhesives containing any urea formaldehyde, the association charged. KCMA ofcials further charged that "questionable science" was used to support the EPA's approach. The KCMA, Titus said, "is concerned about the impact this rule would have on thousands of small businesses, especially cabinetmakers and their component suppliers. "Cabinet makers, who veneer on a kitchen-by-kitchen basis, would be subject to the same regulation as six plywood manufacturers who account for 80% of the market and who produce hundreds of millions or billions of square Circle No. 6 on Product Card 12 | Kitchen & Bath Design News December 2013 feet of commodity products each year," Titus observed. "CARB recognized the distinction between panel producers and fabricators. Under CARB rules, fabricators are required to use certified composite wood, maintain usage records and label their products as compliant, but unlike EPA's proposal, there are no costly additional testing, certifcation, quality control requirements and paperwork burdens, many of which could be duplicative." KCMA joined the Federal Wood Industry Coalition in its comments on the regulation, and submitted research "affirming that the kitchen and bathroom are the best ventilated rooms in the home, which further reduces risk to consumers from formaldehyde emissions from compliant composite wood materials." "Any fabricator who does any veneering should have great concern with the prop ose d comp osite wo o d formaldehyde regulations, as well as anyone making veneered HWPW components supplied to cabinet, furniture and other wood products companies," said KCMA President Paul Sova, of Showplace Wood Products. "This important and specialized part of our supply chain would be regulated the same as large plywood panel manufacturers, which is both overly severe and unnecessary. "In today's economy, many would be unable to support this costly burden to essentially prove the negative," Sova said. "This is not how a rational regulatory system works."