****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
[ tl; dnr ]. imported OEM headboard manufactured in Malaysia. the thin mounting plywood legs are relatively flimsy. complies with California's flammability requirements. contains little or no bio-accumulating fire retardants. Proposition-65 warning of toxic chemicals is hidden. leached phthalates and PU-foam VOCs release risks.I purchased this Lily headboard for the new XL Twin bed of one my teens who outgrew her regular Twin..SOURCE -- The board is imported and distributed by East End N.Y. Imports (NJ), doing business as Modway Inc. It is made in Malaysia by an unidentified manufacturer and OEM exporter, probably Best-beteck Furniture as some of its headboards resemble this one, and it has been one of the distributor's top suppliers..SPECS -- The board, 38½ x 22¼ x 3", is made of fiberboard, polyurethane foam, and a soft vinyl upholstery daftly called Vegan Leather. The two leg pieces, 39 x 2½ x ¾", are made of stained plywood (left panel in figure A). The spacing between holes, which allows adjusting the board's fitting to a given bed, is shown in the two other panels of the figure. The package included two complete sets of fasteners. One, for attaching the legs to a bed frame, contains 8 hex-head M6 bolts (4 of 60 mm [thick frame] and 4 of 35 mm [thin frame]), 8 flat washers, 4 lock washers, 4 M6-nuts and an M4 hex key. The other, for attaching the legs to the board, contains 4 M8 bolts, 4 flat washers and an M5 hex key. Figure B shows how to attach the legs to the bed according to a guide from Modway. No installation instructions came with the board..EXPOSURE HAZARDS -- There are three relevant points:* The product meets California's TB 117-2013 flammability requirements, so it does not contain significant levels of flame retardant chemicals. This is *good*; retardants accumulate in the body, and have been found to be toxic.* It contains all new, 100% PU foam, known to release volatile organic compounds (VOC), which evaporate into the air at normal temperatures, likely including unreacted elements used to make PU, like toluene. Although the off-gassing of this foam might plausibly involve small amounts, there is inhalation exposure as it is released close to the sleeper's head over several hours. To help reduce exposure, I first kept the (black-fabric covered) back of the board under direct sunlight for two days to heat it up and accelerate evaporation in open air, and then further venting in our garage for a couple of days.* It carries a Proposition 65 warning (figure C), required in California for containing "one or more chemicals known to the State [...] to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm" -- this is hidden to the Amazon shopper. Its absence is deceiving, all the more so as sellers can always add a link to the Amazon's page "About California Proposition 65" in the Product Information section. (Further, the NJ distributor itself seems uninterested in disclosing the warning since, at the time of this writing, there is no mention of it on the Modway website.) The toxic chemicals causing the warning are not identified. However, given the TSCA title-VI compliance tag indicating formaldehyde outgassing meets EPA standards, and the absence of fire retardants, the most likely candidate are the *phthalates* added to the vinyl to make it soft and flexible. These chemicals are not bound to the vinyl, and can easily leach and be absorbed by the skin. They can disrupt hormonal function, and are considered a risk of male genital defects during pregnancy, pubertal breast changes in girls and boys, and reduced sperm counts in men. A decade after the 1999 EU's phthalates ban, several of them were prohibited here [15 US Code §2057c] above 0.1% in children products. They are water soluble, so a routine of consistent cleaning of the vinyl with a wet wipe should reduce exposure to surface leached phthalates..PERFORMANCE -- I dislike that the legs are not made of a strong metal. The attachment geometry of the board is a class 1 lever : its fulcrum is where the upper pair of M6 bolts fasten the legs to the bed; its load is the lower quarter of the legs; and its effort is the headboard itself, especially its top edge. Any force applied to the board, such as leaning on it, is amplified at the point where those M6 bolts fasten the slotted (and therefore weakest) portion of the legs. This is a recipe for flexion pressure on plywood legs less than one inch thick. The assembled arrangement felt a bit flimsy when I tested it; to protect it from rear flexion, I placed the attached board against a room wall, adding quarter-circle cork pads to the back of each top corner of the board as contact points, largely hidden from view. My daughter, who chose the board's shape and color, likes its looks -- the fact the vinyl is matte helps a lot in that..My 3-star rating, which takes into account the pre-sale concealment of the Prop-65 warning and the flimsiness of the legs, is in contrast with the mostly positive current reviews. However, it is consistent with the current (and the prior) rating of "grade C" given by a third-party website spotting review reliability._
