I got poisoned

Yesterday night I was up eating at my kitchen table with an 8 by 4 foot panelboard from Lowe’s about 5-6 feet away from me against the adjacent wall. I had purchased it for 14 dollars and planned on using it as a white board but it stank to high heavens and I aired it outside for several hours before bringing it inside the house.

In any case, it still stank, but it was raining outside and I wasn’t about to let it warp anymore and as I was eating my tomato, mustard, and wheat bread sandwich while browsing the web I suddenly got very disoriented. The room started spinning in front of me. I got up and almost crumpled to the ground. I struggled into my bedroom and felt the urgent need to puke. I didn’t, however. I did, however, take a shower, which helped marginally, and laid down on my bed. I did further research and I found that although the board claimed to be formaldehyde free, my symptoms mirrored that of formaldehyde poisoning. Nausea, check. Disorientation, check. Manufactured fiberboard product. Check.

I am confident nothing was wrong with the food since I never had any stomach pains or aches. I also didn’t find myself sitting on the toilet and my stomach was never rumbling or anything. However, the stench of the board was simply unbearable from the second I saw it from the store and still unbearable even after I aired it out and I believe it is the fumes that caused this. I’ve also never felt dizzy like this before; this was new to me.

What are your conjectures?

It might not have formaldehyde but it probably has some kind of other solvents that were offgassing. What you needed to do was go outside for 10 minutes to get some fresh air and see if it cleared up. It’s not that you were ‘poisoned’, it’s more that you got a buzz off whatever was in the glue or paint they used to make it.

If you can put it outside now, do that and let it air out for a few days.

I noticed that when I went into my room, where the board had never been, I felt better. I also turned on the AC overnight and hoped that would pump the inside air out. You’re probably right it was probably some other solvent but in any case it was extremely unpleasant and I did not feel any buzz; I felt terrible and wanted to puke everywhere.

I assume you have a window AC unit with a setting that says something like “Exchange”? If you have central AC or you have window AC that’s set on recirculate it’s not bringing in fresh air, you’d be better off opening a window (if the weather allows).

Sounds like you have a serious case of hypochondria.

Going to slide this over to IMHO since it seems to be asking for advice.

Sorry for your ordeal. If the panel board was manufactured in China it may contain toxins. Maybe your life would be better without it.

How is this product safe to market? It outgassed, emitting chemical fumes that almost knocked an adult out cold? How would it have affected a child or an infant? This is horrific. I think you should return the product and report the problem.

Seconded.

Why would I have hypochondria? The thing really smelled horrible. It was a slightly sweet smell that just wouldn’t dissipate and I dealt with it the best I could by ignoring it but after sitting in the same room with it for about half an hour with my mind trying its best to ignore the smell I almost passed out. It also wasn’t as if I really knew about formaldehyde poisoning a priori.

I put it near the dumpster for pickup and as I carried it over I was caught a whiff of it again … ugh. I’m not even going to bother returning it because I don’t want to have anything else to do with it and frankly, 14 dollars or my health, my health is more important.

If this stuff is so strong, how come the store employees and other customers aren’t adversely affected by the significantly larger quantities they are around for hours a day? Did you call the store to complain? Or try to get your money back?

Oh, sorry, now I see you decided it wasn’t worth the possibility of getting ill again to return it. But you should at least call them and mention it.

Many of these mega stores like Lowes are large enough that there’s plenty of air to dilute the fumes. Also while there probably were a lot of these panels, they were most likely stacked so only one half of the panel, and the edges, was exposed to the air. Of course there probably rows of similar panels.

I agree that calling Lowes to complain would have been a good idea. It might save another person from having a similar experience. If that shipment of panels was defective, Lowes should want to know.

To be fair, they’re in a building that’s considerably larger and has doors opening and closing all day long, usually with a good breeze each time it happens. Sometimes they even have big overhead doors open for an hour here and there.

You probably wouldn’t spray paint something (large) in your living room, but you could shoot off a whole can of it in a Home Depot and not be able to smell it 10 minutes later.

Also, and this is probably a bigger reason, when they were at the store, they were stacked and not off gassing. Once the OP took a sheet off the top he exposed a lot more surface area. He just exposed the bottom and for all he knows someone may have just taken the one above it 20 minutes earlier.

The boards were directly stacked on top of each other and I actually noticed the odor at the store but it was fainter likely because of the masses of air in the store. I also picked the third board down from the top since the top two had a bit of grime on them. This probably didn’t help as the third one would have off gassed minimally on the store, being sandwiched between everything.

I will also call the store and let them know about the product. Thanks for the thoughtful replies. I wouldn’t want someone else to experience something similar. What if it was an elderly person? Baby? They probably wouldn’t fare as well.