Question from Donna

Hi Debra,

It seems like I can’t buy anything without worrying about it. I’m trying to do a sports themed kid’s room and found a light fixture made out of bonded marble. Is bonded marble toxic and would it be more so when the light is on and heating it up? I also wanted to use a baseball pennant for a wall hanging, but the pennant is made of a wool blend felt. Do you know if wool blends would contain formaldehyde? Again, thank you fo all that you do.

Donna

Debra’s Answer

I understand the feeling. The solution is to just keep learning what’s toxic and what’s not and over time you will gain confidence in choosing materials.

Bonded marble is made from powdered marble (a naturally occuring stone) mixed with powdered resin. Now resin occurs in plants (pine sap is a resin, for example) but is also made from petroleum. One article I read said, “For the most part…”resins” are actually made with synthetics, which as cheaper and easier to refine. Synthetic varieties are much more stable, predictable, and uniform than natural ones as well, since they are made under controlled conditions without the possibility of the introduction of impurities. They are made by combining chemicals in a laboratory to stimulate a reaction which results in the formulation of a resinous compound.” That’s why they do it, with no thought of whether it is toxic or not.

Using bonded marble allows a manufacturer to make a product that looks and feels like marble by using a mold instead of carving the marble by hand as an artist would. Resins are often made from polyester or urethane. So in a lampshade, heat from a lightbulb would tend to cause a release of these plastics. I wouldn’t use this lamp.

When I was a child, my mother loved modern design. I remember once she bought for my bedroom a very cool lamp with a heavy cylinder base and a big round plastic shade, like a half sphere dome. I remember the smell of that plastic even typing here right now. Of course I didn’t know it was plastic and I didn’t know it was toxic, but now I look back on that childhood memory and see I was being poisoned night after night. We didn’t know then, but we know now and can make choices.

Wool blend felt is wool mixed with another fiber, often polyester. I don’t know for a fact that they don’t contain formaldehyde, but to the best of my knowledge I have no reason to believe that it does. Formaldehyde is used to make permanent press finishes, which are not found in wool felt.

As for the pennant, smell it. Plastic inks are used to print the name of the team on the felt.

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