Newport Furnishings

Does it matter where your furniture or other items you purchase are made? Maybe, maybe not.

I am not advocating a protectionist trade policy here.  Global trade is a good thing overall however it may be useful to know where your future furniture is made for a couple of reasons.  First is lack of government oversight in some countries around the world.  Even though China is a major player economically in the world, they haven’t caught up in both human rights and environmental policies.  That’s why stuff is fairly cheap over there.  There isn’t an EPA or an FDA or any other agency with any teeth concerned about clean air or water or if the workers are being exposed to toxic chemicals in the workplace.  And it’s just not China.  This scenario is played out in many countries around the world.  Again I am not knocking the people but their governments have some catching up to do.

So why should we care?  Everyone can make their own determination whether they want to stimulate the economies of countries that do business counter to their own values.

The first reason to care is for the protection of your family.  Remember the lead paint issues and toy recalls in recent history.  Our government is not able to sort out all the bad stuff coming into this country as hard as it may try.  We have to be aware and one hint is country of origin.  I’m not saying don’t buy from these countries, just be cognizant of what’s going on. An extreme example that you probably haven’t heard of is formaldehyde poisoning from wood products (furniture and other) coming out of China.  Now the furniture manufacturers were not directly responsible as the problem was with plywood and MDF (medium density fiberboard) products being manufactured in their local economies which they were purchasing for furniture production.  Again remember no equivalent EPA agency in China.  The lack of controls in the plywood manufacturing led to extremely high levels of formaldehyde (think poison or remember the smell of the embalmed frog from high school biology) residue in the product.  The plywood is used in furniture manufacturing and then escapes into the consumer market and goes wherever.  There were reported cases of kids getting sick because their new bedroom set was emitting toxic fumes while they slept.  Its kinds like the CO emissions from a faulty furnace.  A silent killer. Leather and upholstered furniture were also affected due to the interior wood frames.  So ya never know and certainly all stuff being imported from Asia is not hazardous but some is.

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