The Furnishing Industry Association of Australia (FIAA) has launched a national consumer campaign to counteract the flood of formaldehyde, found in imported furniture, into Australia.
The campaign will see the FIAA fight the lack of Australian regulations which allow foreign products to enter Australia containing excessive levels of dangerous chemicals, harmful to both people and the environment.
Flat pack furniture packs, especially kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities and entertainment furniture are increasingly found with excessive levels of lead or formaldehyde, both highly toxic especially to children who are likely to lick or chew these products when playing.
Formaldehyde is used as an additive in the adhesive resin in wood products like MDF and particleboard. All Australian Made products must meet the Australian New Zealand Standard that ensures low, safe levels of formaldehyde.
Australian consumers are buying cheap goods that are potentially quite dangerous to themselves, their families and children, and those that install them. In some circumstances, the structural integrity of the products will also be shoddy. This can only be described as market failure.
Some time ago, the Australian Environmental Labeling Association conducted tests on imported wood panel products and found that almost half failed to meet the Australian Standard.
The FIAA sees that these lesser quality goods have little probability of being ‘caught’ and as such ignore the relevant standards and are big and blatantly unfair competition for quality Australian manufacturers who do comply with all standards.
In fact, the issue is of such dominance in the industry that government bodies and health and safety regulators have been contacted in order to investigate the problem, making it aware to all Australian families.
Little comment has yet to have been made, with many government agencies forwarding their concerns to other departments instead of resolving the issue.
In August this year the Chief Executive of the FIAA, Martin Lewis raised these concerns in a letter to the Hon Ian MacFarlane, Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources. The issue was passed through several ministerial portfolios including Employment and Workplace Relations, Health and Aging and the Commissioner for Fair Trading.
It finally rested with the representatives of the Treasurer, Hon Peter Costello. Mr Costello’s department then pointed out that by then (31 Oct) the government is in caretaker role until the election.
FIAA CEO Martin Lewis is intent on making sure that Australians should not be misled about the quality or safety of their furniture or joinery.
“What is happening is not only hurting our industry, but it is making buying furniture and joinery unsafe and consumers must be protected,” he said.
“The issue may affect all Australians and current research into these chemicals have given us alarming results. We need to resolve the problem and quickly.”
“After years of unsuccessfully lobbying successive governments to assist the Furniture Industry in the face of policy changes with regards to imports, we realized that we needed to run our own positive campaign to encourage consumers to buy the local product,” said Martin.
FIAA is not against imported products and will not be seeking the re-imposition of tariffs. FIAA is however against unfair competition and was flabbergasted by the tolerance of the outgoing Howard Government to unfair competition.
“We’re confident that the new Rudd Government understands and will act on the current unfairness to Australian consumers, workers and their families.”
The cornerstone of the FIAA project is a new swing tag for furniture, which carries a ‘peace of mind’ assurance for the consumer and advises the consumer that the maker of the product is Association endorsed.
The campaign will also be aimed at the increasing ‘green’ side of consumers with information on environmental practice and social and workplace issues.
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