“We have reached a decision which is historic,” said Ladislaus Döry, president of the European Panel Federation (EPF) at its annual meeting in Vienna, Austria in June.“We are going to set up an EPF Standard for very low [formaldehyde] emission boards. This is mainly intended to satisfy the requirements of the furniture industry for all particleboard and MDF products. This has been a much-sought-after new standard.”
There was no detailed information on the new standard available at the time of going to press as the almost unanimous approval of the EPF members was only given during their meeting on June 10. However, Mr Döry was confident of its future.“In a short time, a large number of major panel producers in Europe will produce only to this standard, which sets a new quality, and therefore new costs, which will have to be negotiated between suppliers and customers to share the burden involved in this decision,” said the president.