Speeking of the Chinese.... yew no I just did some research on building cabinets and see that most all std cabinets are at least partly made of particleboard.

Well, scents I know that some formaldehyde and so on leaks out of particleboard, I snooped around to see how to use it and turns out you can seal it up perty good with shellac, etc., and the gases will be shet up inside.

Whilest doing high level research on this, (here's where you boys come in) I found out that them rotten Chinese are dumping high-formaldehyde-content particleboard onto us fine US folks. Imagine that!? And after all the Chinese food we eat, too!!

According to a top secret mole I got at the guvmint sweat shop, this is on account of they was palming it off on the Germuns and the Japunees when those countries wised up and passed laws against it.

-So, back to my story, they are dumping it cheap hand-over-fist on us to git shed of it before a 2011 deadline takes effect that wood stop it dead its tracks. But by then, all their bad particleboard will have bin sold here and installed in shelves and kitchens. If you want to check it yoreself, don't call EPA - they just give you a bunch of hooey. Call your states indoor air quality folks - this could be in the environmental or air quality dep or in the health dept.

This ain't jest another of my wild self-serving rumors - hit's die-rectly from a feller in gubmint, which, as we all know, never lies and is always right.

The US-made stuff is stamped with an Amer National Stds Institoot no A208.1 - 1993 which means they are in compliance with a 13 year old standard, which ain't bad but it's still 13 years old and way behind the findings of field testing.

As far as I can tell, they ain't required to label it "WARNING: MADE IN CHINA WITH HIGH LEVELS OF CANCER CAUSING CHEMICALS JEST A WAITING FOR YEW TO BREATHE IT IN!" so you have to look at it perty close.

So... this does have a climax (sorry ladies)....

If you are building shelves or anything for inside yore house, be sure to seal any un-laminated particleboard with shellac or some other good sealer. I like shellac cause it dries quick and is alcohol based, so you don't have that nice lingering solvent smell in the house ad nauseum.

Welp! That's the word on the street boys.

Guv Bob
"Buy American - if yew kin find it!!"