Lumber Liquidators’ Mission Olive laminate flooring
A Michigan couple is among the plaintiffs in a federal class-action filed against Lumber Liquidators over free home tests the company has provided to customers to see if their wood flooring has high levels of formaldehyde. Source: Detroit Free Press
The suit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California claims that the kits under report the chemical levels and are not from a third party, but from the Virginia-based chain itself as part of a cover-up.
It accuses the company of falsely labeling the made-in-China laminate wood flooring as safe, despite high levels of formaldehyde, a common glue ingredient in the composite laminate flooring base layer.
It’s a chemical linked to increased risk of nose, sinus and lung cancers and leukemia when there’s long-term exposure.
Kenneth and Casandra Barrett of Allegan County, bought about 1500 square feet of 12-millimeter Dream Home Ispiri America’s Mission Olive Laminate Flooring at a Lumber Liquidators in Grand Rapids for their home, flooring they were led to believe was safe.
Both Barretts suffer from allergies and she is a breast cancer survivor.
Soon after the flooring was installed, the Barretts started having chronic runny noses and frequent headaches, symptoms of consistent formaldehyde exposures.
When they contacted the company, a representative maligned the “60 Minutes” report and assured them the flooring was safe, what the suit calls “a deliberate attempt to foster a false sense of security.”
The other plaintiffs in the class-action suit are two women in California and a Florida couple.
According to the lawsuit, Lumber Liquidators launched “a campaign of disinformation” after the episode, attacking the report and offering free home testing kits to customers who’d bought the controversial flooring.
“The third party providing the home testing kits is not independent, but is being paid by Lumber Liquidators,” the suit said.
“The testing kits being offered do not use testing methods that are commonly accepted and that CARB recommends.
“The tests Lumber Liquidators is offering are inherently unreliable, designed to under report the formaldehyde levels present in the composite flooring, and are not designed to measure formaldehyde emissions from a particular source.”
The plaintiffs’ allegations against Lumber Liquidators include fraudulent concealment; violation of the federal law governing product warranties; unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business acts and practices; violations of California’s Business and Professions Code and Consumer Legal Remedies Act; violation of the Michigan Consumer Protection Act; and Violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
