Constructing Cabinets

Most kitchen and bath cabinets installed in homes today are made with at least some man-made wood products. While upscale cabinets may have solid-wood doors and drawer fronts, the drawer sides and bottoms, the cabinet shelves and backs — and often the end panels — are made of plywood or particleboard. While some of these components may have a fancy wood veneer surface, they are still often made with less expensive man-made wood products. While man-made materials are more stable (they shrink and expand less when the temperature and humidity fluctuates) and are cheaper than solid wood, they can pose real health risks. Here’s why:

Cabinet-grade plywood and particleboard is made primarily of thin layers or bits of wood, such as pine, held together with glue. Pine can give off fairly strong natural terpene odors — gaseous hydrocarbon compounds that can be irritating to mucous membranes. Not surprisingly, some individuals — especially chemically sensitive ones — find these airborne terpenes bothersome. People who are not highly sensitive may only be bothered by terpene odors at higher concentrations, such as would be released by turpentine.

A bigger concern with man-made wood products involves the glues used to construct them — especially the urea- formaldehyde (UF) resins. UF glues can emit formaldehyde for years. To make matters worse, the clear finishes commonly applied to cabinets are made from urea-formaldehyde resins. As a result, kitchen and bath cabinets are often major sources of formaldehyde pollution in homes. Formaldehyde can cause sinus and respiratory irritation, menstrual irregularities and possibly an acquired hypersensitivity to many other substances.

It’s been suggested that you can reduce the emissions from your cabinets by simply coating all the surfaces with a sealant. However, even applying multiple coats will not seal in all the bothersome gases completely. While they’ll be greatly reduced, the remaining emission levels are often still intolerable for sensitive individuals. Then too, sealants are often very odorous in their own right and could take several months to lose their odor after being applied.

Making problematic new cabinets tolerable is often difficult — even impossible in many cases. Time may be a better cure, although sufficiently reduced emissions for sensitive people may take a few years. Obviously, the ideal approach would be to install healthier cabinets to begin with.

In any home-construction or remodeling project requiring new cabinetry, it’s best to choose cabinets that won’t compromise your own health or that of your family. Here are some less-toxic cabinet suggestions:

Alternative Solid-Wood Cabinets

Solid-wood cabinets can be a healthy choice — if the woods, glues and finishes are carefully chosen. Such cabinets are attractive and long lasting, but understan...