In the mid 80s the timber industry ran into the Pacific Ocean on their century long swath of destruction across America. While some blamed a spotted owl in the remaining 4% of natural forests for the decline in availability of mature forests, the simple fact remains that overconsumption and industry overcutting had found them at the end of the frontier. The industries then returned en masse to converge on the recovering forests of the southeast. The pulp and paper industry utilizes the forests of the southeast to meet 70% of their demands for product and profit. The building products industry now faced with competing for a
younger forest being cut faster, have joined in a forest feeding frenzy incomparable to any thus far seen. The forests of the south are due to be cut within 40 years.

The building products industry, seeing the future of immature forests, have responded by vast investments into engineered building materials like Oriented Strand Board (OSB), Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF), Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) and other composite materials. We shall focus on the largest segment, OSB.

OSB is the largest growth segment of this transition with over 60 new mills in the US and Canada, most built in the last decade. OSB production has increased nearly 30 fold since 1980 and overtook plywood in 2001 as the leading panel board for construction According to the Structural Board Association, OSB will have a 60% market share by 2004.

ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY?
The manufacturers and trade groups rally around the "environmentally friendly" nature of OSB. Claims are made that OSB utilizes waste wood, trees unsuitable for other purposes, and can come from plantations of fast growing hybrids or genetically altered "frankentrees". The on ground reality is that the vast majority of OSB production is responsible for clearcutting remaining native forests of the Southeastern US, as well as robbing mature public and private forest in Canada, Chile, and nearly everywhere they have extablished plants. Due to their ability to use even small trees and utilize limbs and 'waste' wood in producing their own energy needs, the clearcutting is becoming more prevalent and severe. The community health impacts occur in poluted waters downstream from clearcuts, contributions to global warming from deforestation, and increasing flood damages. Additional assaults to communities near OSB clear cuts include health effects from applications of toxic herbicides
and fertilizers used in replacement plantations. Over a quarter of the Souths remaining native forests are slated to be destroyed and converted to chemically intensive fiber farms by 2040 or far earlier by some estimates.

The resulting increase in industrial-scale clearcutting is adversely affecting many species of plants, animals, and birds that depend on mature forested landscapes. Increased sedimentation and erosion from logging is damaging water quality, impacting aquatic species as well as drinking supplies. In addition to providing clean drinking water, forest moderate hydrological functions (preventing floods and droughts), filter air pollutants, give off oxygen, support and maintain genetic and biodiversity,
and provide a unique place to recreate and seek spiritual renewal. In addition to ecological effects, clearcutting for chipboard has long-term negative implications for the region’s economy, impacting overall community economic well-being as well as forest-dependent businesses such as outdoor recreation, tourism and solid wood manufacturing. Yet, all of these values are destroyed when a forest is clearcut.

OSB HEALTH DANGERS
Because we can no longer find enough mature forests that can be milled to meet demands, we find the focus on gluing together chopped up pieces of remaining and young forests using phenol formaldehyde (p-f) and methylene-diisocyanate (MDI).

Workers are facing more toxic workplaces in manufacture and building trades, communities are dealing with toxic releases of these chemical into their air, land and water, and consumers are seeing elevated levels of toxin within their homes. While MDI is far more toxic acutely to workers in manufacturing, the formadehyde based building products out-gas into homes of consumers for years. According to studies published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, OSB (oriented strand board) workers were more likely to have increased incidences of asthma and other airway dysfunction. Other studies show high exposures can produce pulmonary edema and death. The EPA considers formaldehyde to be a probable human carcinogen in nasal passages larnyx and lungs, and animal studies show them to be carcinogenic. Menstrual disorders and pregnancy problems have also been reporte in female workers exposed to formadehyde. MDI is a suspected human carcinogen and isocyanates have also been shown to cause respiratory distress in humans and cancers and lab animals.

According to the EPA, newer home may have greater than 3 times the concentration of formaldehyde in ambient air than older homes, which is also 3 times the current national standard for protecting public health. There is concern among some about linking the increasing reliance on chemically engineered building products to to the epidemic increase in childhood asthma in the last two decades.

Asthma has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. While 15 million people are affected, of particular concern is the growing number of children with asthma. Since 1980, the largest increase in asthma cases has been in children under the age of five. Asthma attacks cause one third of all pediatric emergency room visits. Asthma is also the fourth most common reason for pediatric physician office visits, and is one of the leading causes of school absenteeism accounting for approximately 10
million school days missed each year.

Denny Haldeman is a steering committee member of Dogwood Alliance, an Asheville, NC-based nonprofit group working to save as much of remaining native southeastern forests as possible. Contact this writer: writer@newlifejournal.com

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