Formaldehyde has been deemed an unhealthy feature of composite boards. Europe had led the way on formaldehyde reduction with E1 and E2 standards but demanded more from the market particularly from international home products retailer IKEA. This resulted in the imposition of stricter standards on the MDF and chipboard producers. With the backing of IKEA, this lead to the Californian Air Resources Board (which measures airborne emissions rather than the amount of formaldehyde in the board) emerging as the standard in the marketplace.
