Plaintiffs Challenge Lumber Liquidators Testing Kit

Plaintiffs in the laminate flooring class action lawsuit against Lumber Liquidators have asked the California federal court for an injunction to stop that company from representing that its do-it-yourself air testing kits accurately report how much formaldehyde emanates from its laminate flooring products.

Formaldehyde Testing Allegations Against Lumber Liquidators

The excessive formaldehyde content in certain China-sourced Lumber Liquidators’ composite wood products was exposed in a report on “60 Minutes.” In addition to being a known carcinogen, formaldehyde can cause respiratory irritation, headaches, coughing, dizziness, and nausea. It can cause toxicity in the nervous, reproductive and immune systems. Composite wood products use formaldehyde-containing resins to bond wood particles together. The California Air Resources Board, or CARB, established formaldehyde limits for composite wood products. As reported on “60 Minutes,” testing on Lumber Liquidators laminate flooring products found 30 out of 31 samples exceeded CARB limits, and one product’s formaldehyde content was more than 7 times the CARB limit.

Lumber Liquidators responded to the “60 Minutes” report by saying the CARB testing process is invalid. CARB testing requires the outer layer of laminate to be removed so that testing can be performed on the core. Lumber Liquidators instead provides a do-it-yourself testing kit that tests the air near the flooring rather than the flooring itself. The kit requires the customer to collect an air sample and send it to a third-party laboratory for analysis.

The plaintiffs argue these do-it-yourself testing kits are all but useless. They cite an expert declaration by an industrial hygienist who says that “[t]esting the air in a home requires a sampling strategy that is unique to that home based on its structure, ventilation, and layout of the home, the climate where the home is located, the residents and their personal habits, the weather and barometric pressure when air samples are taken, the time of year, and other factors.” Lumber Liquidators’ testing kit accounts for none of these important factors, the plaintiffs say. CARB itself warned within days of the “60 Minutes” report that testing indoor air would not necessarily show whether the flooring was emitting elevated levels of formaldehyde.

The plaintiffs also allege the instructions for the kit are written to produce lower readings and false negatives. And they note that Lumber Liquidators sent out the testing kits in the cooler months of winter and spring, when test results are likely to be lower. The net result, according to the plaintiffs, will be that the tests “will falsely lead some to believe that their floors are safe, and to forego effective measures to reduce the health risks the floors pose.”

Lumber Liquidators Litigation

As part of their motion for an injunction, the plaintiffs predict success on the merits of their claims under the California Unfair Competition Law and Consumer Legal Remedies Act as well as consumer protection laws of Michigan and Florida.

Parallel to this ongoing litigation, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced in March 2015 that it is actively investigating Lumber Liquidators’ laminate flooring products. Lumber Liquidators has stated that it is cooperating with the investigation.

This Lumber Liquidators Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 15-cv-01475-JST, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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