What the Wooden Pallet Industry Does Not Want You to Know
What are the issues that industry is facing with antiquated wood pallets?
Food Safety
- Wood pallets are inherently porous and can easily harbor bacteria, like salmonella, e. coli and listeria.
Fire Hazards
- Wood pallets have lower flash points and combust far more easily than plastic
- Wood dust, which can result from when repairing, refurbishing, crushing or even abrading wood pallets in regular use, is a strong to severe explosion hazard near an ignition source
- Thermal-oxidative degradation, or burning, of wood can produce irritating and potentially toxic fumes and gases including carbon monoxide, aldehydes and organic acids, especially for Southern Yellow Pine which is now used extensively
Environmental Hazards of Composite Blocks
- To save money, some pallet rental services have moved to a formaldehyde-rich composite block in its pallet product in spite of obvious health and environmental risks
- Since wood is porous, formaldehyde-based resins applied to wood are unstable in their commercial form, as well as their ultimate disposal in flames or landfill (3 million wood pallets end up in landfills every year)
- This represents a double risk – for human health and for the environment at disposal in incinerators and landfills
- Wood pallets are 50% heavier than iGPS’ plastic pallets and require more fuel to transport, thereby generating increased levels of greenhouse gas emissions
Human Health Hazards of Wood and Composite Block Pallets
- The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the National Toxicology Program (NTP) classify wood dust as a human carcinogen
- Formaldehyde is listed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as a probable human carcinogen
- The National Toxicology Program (NTP) included formaldehyde in the Annual Report on Carcinogens
- OSHA regulates formaldehyde as a potential carcinogen for exposures exceeding 0.5 ppm
- Wood pallets are 50% heavier than iGPS’ plastic pallets—in fact the iGPS product is the only pallet to meet NIOSH guidelines
