ALTERNATIVE ADHESIVE TECHNOLOGIES IN THE FOAM
FURNITURE AND BEDDING INDUSTRIES: A CLEANER
TECHNOLOGIES SUBSTITUTES ASSESSMENT

 

The Design for the Environment (DfE) Program in EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) is a voluntary, cooperative program that works in partnership with industry to develop and distribute pollution prevention and environmental and human health risk information on alternative chemicals, processes, and products. The DfE approach uses cleaner technologies substitutes assessments (CTSAs) to evaluate the performance, cost, and environmental and human health impacts of competing technologies. A CTSA is a compilation of considerations and reference materials related to available and emerging technologies in a given industrial sector. The aim of the CTSA is to assist businesses in making more informed decisions that fit their situation.

The foam fabrication, upholstered furniture manufacturing, and mattress manufacturing industries rely heavily on adhesives throughout their operations. Many of these companies are small businesses. Historically, the adhesives used by these industries were based on 1,1,1-trichloroethane (TCA), an ozone-depleting substance. When production of TCA was banned, these industries generally converted to adhesives based on methylene chloride (METH), a suspect carcinogen. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) developed a very stringent regulation on METH which became effective for most METH users in April, 2000. Most companies could not meet the new worker exposure limits without a substantial investment in ventilation equipment. As a result, nearly all companies plan to convert away from METH-based adhesives. Various types of alternative adhesives are available and the businesses need guidance on their cost, performance and relative risks so they can select the alternative that is best for their operation. This project provides the comparative information on the adhesive alternatives.

This document contains an overall summary of the Furniture Adhesives CTSA project and results. More detailed information can be found in Volume 1: Cost and Performance Evaluation, which describes cost and performance of the adhesive technologies, and in Volume 2: Risk Screening and Comparison, which presents comparative risk information. Volume 2 of the document is available as a link http://eerc.ra.utk.edu/ccpct/aap1.html

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