Getting Rid of New Desk Smell

July 2, 2008 7:11 AM

My wife and I bought an "assemble it yourself" desk two months ago, but it still has a new desk smell that irritates her and may be unhealthy. How to get rid of it?

Some background research (from a consumer advocacy group and from the Consumer Product Safety Commission) suggests that it may be formaldehyde in the desk that is causing the problem.

The second link above suggests (1) venting the room better (which won't work too well in our case), (2) seal the surface with paint or varnish, or (3) remove the desk.

So, my questions are:

• Are there any other explanations other than formaldehyde?
• If the problem is indeed formaldehyde, has anyone had luck using other methods to remove the new desk smell?
• If I disassembled the desk and put it in storage, how long would it take before new desk smell goes away (assuming a garage with ok ventilation)?

Currently, my wife thinks disassembling and storing the desk is the best option, thoughts?

posted by jasonhong to Home & Garden (10 answers total)

Ask yourself this: Why would anyone use formaldehyde in the construction of a desk?

Then ask yourself this: how many cases have you heard where people were sickened or in some other way harmed by that "new desk smell"?

There are different answers for those questions, but most of them take you into the, "I'm being paranoid territory."

The smell is most likely the resin that the factory used to seal up the particle board.

How do you get rid of it? Move the desk into an open and well ventilated area, setup a box fan to blow across it and wait. A dry garage would be a good place. So to may be your front drive way. Just don't let it get wet.
posted by wfrgms at 7:24 AM on July 2, 2008

If the desk is made from particle board and/or medium density fiberboard (mdf), it's likely the glue is urea-formaldehyde and it's gassing out. The amount of formaldehyde gassing out isn't likely to be a medical issue unless you're sensitive to it and then it's pretty much like any other allergen.

What can you do? The Green Guide suggests a seal coat on the unfinished surfaces. I suggest applying it in a well-ventilated space like a garage or outdoors.

You may wish to rapidly age the desk too. If you can put it outdoors, on a patio or driveway, and protect it from rain, a few days of baking in the sun will do wonders. It's likely to have a moderately adverse affect on the finish (laminate or whatever).
posted by jdfan at 7:39 AM on July 2, 2008

Formaldehyde is often found in the urea-formaldehyde glues in inexpensive particle board. Some manufacturers are no longer using this sort of glue, so you might want to research the website for the manufacturer of the desk itself. If they sell the product in Europe, they are required to use other glues and California regulations will ban those glues next year. There are other VOCs that may or may not be harmful but certainly emit a detectable odor. If you can determine that your company used a non-toxic glue, you may be able to make her comfortable that it is not a potential carcinogen, but rather just a minor annoyance.
posted by Lame_username at 7:48 AM on July 2, 2008

Ikea?
posted by oxford blue at 7:53 AM on July 2, 2008

Get rid of the desk.

Your wife may be one of those rare individuals whose initial sensitivity can feed back on itself positively, leading to a scenario where she reacts to more and more stuff ever more strongly, and your lives are turned inside out along the way.
posted by jamjam at 8:49 AM on July 2, 2008

I know exactly what you're talking about, the same thing happened to me once with a desk made from MDF, then again with some kitchen cabinets. It's formaldehyde off-gassing. jdfan has the right idea in that you can accelerate the off-gassing by adding heat. With the desk I did this by cranking up the heat to a ridiculous level and leaving for the weekend. With the cabinets I did it by leaving them in the garage in the baking summer heat. None of these items is a problem for me now, and I found them unbearable in the beginning.
posted by HotToddy at 9:43 AM on July 2, 2008

Construction crews used to use a process called a "bakeout" after all interior finishes were installed on a new construction project to neutralize the VOCs present -- including urea-formaldehyde found in some adhesives used in particle board and, I think, MDF. So the suggestions to apply heat are good. Sunshine would work very nicely for this or if you're worried about damage from sun, shade it and keep it outside to get it ventilated -- the general warmth (depending on where you are) will help too. Then, maybe seal it?

I find off-gassing materials to be pretty intolerable, especially when they're fresh. Bleh. It's probably not going to harm your wife's health but I'd use methods to get rid of the smell. Or replace the desk.

If you decide to replace, check out that Green Guide link above and look into their buying guides for what to watch out for in this arena.
posted by amanda at 1:25 PM on July 2, 2008

I'm pretty sensitive to smells like that - both on new wooden products and some plastic ones.

I've found that leaving them outside in sunlight for a day or two almost always eliminates the smell. I don't know if it's the ventilation, the heat, or the UV light, but it works.
posted by mmoncur at 3:04 AM on July 3, 2008

Response by poster: Thanks for the replies everyone! We're going to try the sunlight and heat option first. And yes, we will be sure to purchase furniture from Ikea and more green places in the future.
posted by jasonhong at 8:35 AM on July 3, 2008

I just went to the allergist thinking I had developed an allergy to my cat. He tells me I'm allergic to formaldehyde and that Nasalcrom can help. At least the cat is off the hook.
posted by egk at 3:47 PM on September 5, 2008