Coated Tile Backer Boards Under Investigaion

[Lee@emctiles]

Chinese tile backer boards found to contain banned substances
A range of Chinese manufactured tile backer boards and wetroom shower trays are under investigation by the Environment Agency for being manufactured using banned substances.

The products look similar to the leading WEDI, JACKOBOARD and MARMOX ranges. Constructed with a core ofextruded polystyrene (XPS) and apolymer modified glass fibre reinforced cementitious coating they are currently being sold around the UK by a number of distributors to unsuspecting retailers and tradesmen.

Peter Kindness, Managing Director of Wedi UK, said: "I am sure that reputable retailers will not be attracted to these questionable materials, but products containing banned substances have no place in our marketplace."

When extruded polystyrene is manufactured, molten beads of polystyrene are extruded through a heated cylinder and various dyes and fire retardants are added. To create the honeycomb bubbles in the extruded material, a gas or blowing agent is injected into the molten polymer to produce the finished material.

Tests indicate that two European Banned Substances are incorporated in the imported products.

The blowing agent used is a HCFC, an ozone-depleting aerosol type gas, which is banned from the EU. Most reputable manufacturers of XPS have made major investments to modify their extrusion equipment so their products comply with the EU legislation and now use CO² as their blowing agent, which is known to have a minimal effect on the environment but increases processing costs.

The Chinese XPS also utilises a banned fire retardant, HBCD, which has recently been banned due to its high toxicity.

If the Environment Agency find evidence of non-compliance towards either the Ozone Depleting Substance or the Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulations, their legal teams will take appropriate actions to ensure compliance.

Note to retailers: manufacturers of XPS should be able to provide test reports from independent testing laboratories that indicate whether their products are CFC/HCFC free and also which chemicals are added as fire retardants

 

[One Day]

how much are you selling them for Lee???

 

[Rizzle from the Portizzle]

Weird how the link cant be shown...... anyway, heres a snippet of the Tilezine article.

Chinese tile backer boards found to contain banned substances
A range of Chinese manufactured tile backer boards and wetroom shower trays are under investigation by the Environment Agency for being manufactured using banned substances.

The products look similar to the leading WEDI, JACKOBOARD and MARMOX ranges. Constructed with a core of extruded polystyrene (XPS) and a polymer modified glass fibre reinforced cementitious coating they are currently being sold around the UK by a number of distributors to unsuspecting retailers and tradesmen.

Peter Kindness, Managing Director of Wedi UK, said: "I am sure that reputable retailers will not be attracted to these questionable materials, but products containing banned substances have no place in our marketplace."

When extruded polystyrene is manufactured, molten beads of polystyrene are extruded through a heated cylinder and various dyes and fire retardants are added. To create the honeycomb bubbles in the extruded material, a gas or blowing agent is injected into the molten polymer to produce the finished material.

Tests indicate that two European Banned Substances are incorporated in the imported products.

The blowing agent used is a HCFC, an ozone-depleting aerosol type gas, which is banned from the EU. Most reputable manufacturers of XPS have made major investments to modify their extrusion equipment so their products comply with the EU legislation and now use CO² as their blowing agent, which is known to have a minimal effect on the environment but increases processing costs.

The Chinese XPS also utilises a banned fire retardant, HBCD, which has recently been banned due to its high toxicity.

If the Environment Agency find evidence of non-compliance towards either the Ozone Depleting Substance or the Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulations, their legal teams will take appropriate actions to ensure compliance.

Note to retailers: manufacturers of XPS should be able to provide test reports from independent testing laboratories that indicate whether their products are CFC/HCFC free and also which chemicals are added as fire retardants

so absalotly no proof yet .next thing you no you will be denieing the the the euroepean tile manafator are not
using clinkiner in there tiles making them inpossable to cut with out a wet saw. and of course the chinese have destroyed british steel with there cheap steel .that we do not even produce.you will then go on to deniy that last year that we bought 80% of our steel from the eu and only 20% from china .lets hope we also see the independet results from your surplypiers and you post them to .but of course you can trust them and there results realy wake up

 

[Lee@emctiles]

how much are you selling them for Lee???

Never sold an uncoated tile backer board, said for years i dont like them.

 

[J Sid]

Never sold an uncoated tile backer board, said for years i dont like them.

but the ones under investigation are 'coated'

 

[Lee@emctiles]

but the ones under investigation are 'coated'

i was informed it was the uncoated.

 

[Dan]

I've updated the title to state it's the coated ones, not uncoated which are sold in the millions compared to coated as its used in walls and whatnot too. And is presumed safe.

 

[Rookery]

Well that's the Chinese for you.