Uniboard, a North American leader of manufactured engineered wood products, is pleased to announce that the Composite Panel Association (CPA) certified its Mont-Laurier, Quebec, manufacturing facility to meet California Air Resources Board (CARB) Phase 2 emissions standards for the production of MDF panels.

The announcement that CARB Phase 2 compliant MDF panels are now being produced at Uniboard’s Mont-Laurier mill comes well in advance of the enforcement of the new standards, which take effect on January 1, 2011. With this certification, the Mont-Laurier mill joins the Company’s Sayabec and Val-d’Or mills in Quebec as well as its Moncure, North Carolina particleboard production facility, which are already in compliance with CARB Phase 2 standards.

In 2008, the State of California adopted a resolution to address formaldehyde exposure from composite wood products through the establishment of emissions controls. The new law set upper limits on formaldehyde emissions from composite wood products sold in the state or used to make finished goods offered for sale in the state. The first phase of the regulation, known as CARB Phase 1, took effect on January 1, 2009. 

Like all Uniboard products, panels produced at the Mont-Laurier mill are made using 100-percent pre-consumer recycled or recovered wood fiber, which saves trees and avoids landfill. The Mont-Laurier mill is also FSC-certified (Forest Stewardship Council) and EPP-certified (Environmentally Preferable Product by the Composite Panel Association).