Lumber Liquidators Faces Formaldehyde Class Action Lawsuit

A Lumber Liquidators class action lawsuit was filed over allegations that Lumber Liquidators may have included carcinogenic chemicals in floorboards sold at its stores.

The Lumber Liquidators lawsuit is expected to include thousands of plaintiffs who bought certain types of flooring from Lumber Liquidators. The Lumber Liquidators lawsuit includes accusations that the flooring was more easily damaged than Lumber Liquidators claimed.

After a recent “60 Minutes” investigation, the Lumber Liquidators class action lawsuit was amended to include claims that the flooring may have had high levels of formaldehyde, a dangerous chemical closely linked to cancer.

Formaldehyde is an organic compound that actually occurs naturally in living organisms. But, like many compounds, it is toxic in higher doses.

While humans have the ability to break down smaller amounts of formaldehyde, the chemical becomes dangerous in higher levels. As such, the state of California has banned large amounts of formaldehyde from consumer goods, and it is expected that the California guidelines for formaldehyde levels will be adopted nationwide soon.

According to the National Cancer Institute, formaldehyde is a strongly-scented colorless liquid that is used in producing household goods, particularly pressed-wood products. It is also used as a disinfectant, as it kills bacteria, fungi, and viruses.

In the short-term, it can cause burning in the eyes and nose, as well as coughing, skin irritation, and nausea and vomiting. Individual tolerance to formaldehyde varies from person to person, but as little as 0.1ppm is enough to trigger short-term formaldehyde symptoms.

In the longer-term, formaldehyde exposure may cause cancer. The National Institute of Health and other health organs of the government have investigated the possible link between formaldehyde and cancer since the 1980, when laboratory tests indicated that formaldehyde can cause cancer in rats.

Various agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, have ruled that formaldehyde is probably a human carcinogen, and the National Toxicology Program has ruled formaldehyde a known human carcinogen. Government-funded studies have shown that people who work with formaldehyde have an increased rate of leukemia (and other blood cancers), lymphatic cancers and brain tumors.

The “60 Minutes” investigation reported that their analysis found that wood flooring sold at Lumber Liquidators contained dangerous and illegal levels of formaldehyde, and that this wood flooring was imported from China, where environmental laws are often more lax than in the United States.

The Lumber Liquidators Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 5373, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
UPDATE: Several Lumber Liquidators class action lawsuits were consolidated into a multidistrict litigation (MDL), or mass tort, and transferred to a Virginia federal court by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML), alleging that the flooring company sold wood floors containing toxic levels of formaldehyde.

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