When we place new furniture in a room, we can have headaches or rhinitis, and we call that phenomenon sick furniture syndrome. From this year, there is a controversy that domestic furniture contains more harmful substances and causes sick furniture syndrome more often than foreign furniture.
  Formaldehyde, a substance that causes sick furniture syndrome, is known as a carcinogen which stimulates skin and respiratory diseases. The substance is released a lot from manufactured timber, so the government regulates timber by making grades of it based on emission rates of formaldehyde. There are SE0, E0, and E1 grades. SE0 is the cleanest timber that doesn’t release any formaldehyde. The controversy that domestic furniture is more harmful began when people found out that Ikea is using E0 grade wood and domestic furniture is using E1 grade wood, which is worse than E0 grade.
  In fact, every country has different standards of permission about furniture materials. In the case of Korea, material which is lower than E1 grade cannot be used for interior furniture. However, EU and USA’s standard of permission grade is E0. Therefore, Korea has looser regulations about furniture materials than other countries.
  The furniture association is saying that the previous grades only show the noxiousness of materials and not the standard of noxiousness of the completed product. Also, the association said, “The furniture is not only composed of timber but with glue, paint, and finishing materials, so the completed product is much important and that’s why comparing with foreign furniture is meaningless.”
  However, if lots of harmful substances are emitted from the timber, how can the completed furniture emit smaller amounts of noxious substances? Because of the finishing materials, the noxious substances might increase. Furniture using materials of bad quality will emit a certain level of harmful substances even if the furniture is made really well. Therefore, Korea should reinforce the regulations for the standards of permission.