Guangzhou authorities announced that close to 40 percent of the furniture produced in Guangdong Province, China, fails the quality test.

The most common cause of the failure is the excessive amounts of formaldehyde emitting from the furniture, with the current amount far exceeding the regulatory standard.

The most serious case reaches seven milligrams per liter—3.7 times more than the Chinese national standard, said Liang Jiachi, director of the Guangzhou Bureau of Quality Supervision.

Since the beginning of March, the bureau has dealt with the furniture products.

The result of the random check showed that only 63.6 percent of the furniture products passed the test. Sixteen percent of unqualified furniture exceeds the formaldehyde emission limit.

To reduce costs, some manufacturers use "E2" graded medium density fiberbroad, which are cheaper, but emit a higher percentage of formaldehyde. Some of the companies do not have the examining equipment and personnel, so there is no testing the raw materials, and their own products.

Guangzhou City has 296 furniture companies. More than half are hand-make workshops, reproducing furniture from factories. There are 191 problematic manufacturers.

Read the original article in Chinese