Is Wondermat® made with FORMAMIDE? (Added 7/28/2011)

Wondermat® brand foam mats are NOT made with formamide!  That is to say there is NO formamide being used in the actual Wondermat® foam formula since at least 1992. Wondermat® brand foam mats are NOT made with any PVC, BPA (Bisphenol A), or PCB compounds, no latex compounds, no Phthalates, REACH SVHC and PAHs either. This Frequently Asked Questions page has had our general foam composition posted on it for over 10 years, along with required test results for the U.S., Japan and the EU, where we sell our products.

We began responding directly to customer enquiries about formamide in December 2010, following import restrictions for products containing formamide introduced in Belgium and later in France. In the United States, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued no warning or advisories as of June 2011, but for Wondermat® that is irrelevant because we sell our products globally, and we have always had to deal with testing requirements for the EU and Japan especially, being the toughest in the world.

There was also another chemical issue going on in late 2010 that centered on the  46 "Substances of Very High Concern" (SVHC) candidate list based on the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) publication on 3 December 2010 regarding Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 concerning REACH. This is an actual EU standard, and testing was a requirement if we wanted to keep selling there. We have actual recent test reports that indicate our foam supplier is in compliance with those EU standards. We have masked our supplier's name for business reasons, but it's legit.

As a result of the new concern over formamide, we began insisting on a new series of independent, 3rd-Party tests be performed by the factories that manufacture the foam used in our Wondermat products, using labs that we are familiar with and have trusted in the past. We have also been to each of the factories we use in Taiwan and have talked to the owners, managers and supervisors about the issue, and having had our own experiences with formamide back in 1992, we are prepared to tell you what we know on the subject, and hopefully put a lot of people's minds at ease.

As for the test results, what we have received is an SGS test report indicating that levels of formamide are below 10 ppm(mg/kg). It was a cut-off test, so we can't give you an exact level beyond saying it's below 10 ppm(mg/kg) right now. What we do know for sure is that in Wondermat® brand mats, the chemical is NOT there in the original mix. So the question that remains is what, if any, chemical change is going on when the raw materials are put under the heat and pressure of manufacturing? Less than 10 ppm(mg/kg) is what we can honestly say today for Wondermat, based on these tests we have been given. We intend to get an exact number, but probably not before we know what number the government scientists on all sides come up with as a guideline, which we expect to get soon, before any holiday production begins. These are expensive tests, and the factories don't want to run them again unless they have to re-certify a reformulated mixture.

This is what we know today, based on what we have been presented with and what we have been able to find out from our own sources. We have more than a 15 year relationship with our main foam supplier, and we have been using SGS Testing in Taiwan for much of our 20 years in business. We can't imagine any of them lying or falsifying test data given to us; especially SGS, because they cover the entire toy industry, not just foam mats, so it makes no sense for them to put their reputation on the line for a small segment of a much larger industry.

Regardless of what anyone else is doing or saying on this subject, TAIWAN is going to protect its own interest in this business. Taiwan is BANNING the use of formamide in foam mats beginning in Jan 2012. That should help put some fears to rest, at least for mats made in Taiwan, like Wondermat

We have to reveal a Wondermat® trade secret here, but pure formic acid is cleaner but more expensive than formamide. We could get the same foaming effect using formamide, but we DO NOT use it because it makes foam smell like ammonia. We never liked it, parents never liked it, and teachers never liked it. We figured that out in 1992 before we really started moving product, so this is not a new issue to us (aesthetically). We didn't know of any danger in this chemical in 1992, but we knew it smelled terrible and consciously refused to use it on that basis alone, even though it was cheaper.

The final irony in this for us here at Wondermat® is that the children's segment of our business has gone from 100% of our sales in 1992 to less than 10% today. From where we sit, it looks like everyone wanted these cheaper mats. We refused to play. This company was founded by a mother and father who raised 3 babies on, in, and around Wondermat® like no other. No strange growths or behavior problems; one is out of college and working for a big tech company, one is in college, and one is in high school. It's a small sampling, but we never would have put those babies - or your babies - at risk if we knew there was any problem.

We've been trying to do the right thing for 20 years, but perhaps a lot of people who got into this business in the last 10 years, especially the ones that jumped on the internet and started drop shipping the cheapest stuff they could find never took the time to figure out the chemistry at all and just went for cheap and the best profit they could get. Most of these mats used to be made in Taiwan, but a lot of production has moved to China, so perhaps they have a little way to go technically, plus the push for ever cheaper product affects everyone. What we do know for sure is that back in 1992, there was no existing product line of foam mats on the market for us to look at, just a couple of companies trying to figure it out. We had a UCLA educated chemist involved in our business in 1992, and we were doing tons of testing with real people and prototypes. We were making a product for KIDS; it was important work, and we were scared to death when two people from Consumer Product Safety Commission showed up at our office in 1993 asking for full samples of ALL of our products. We figured this day was coming, but we had paid a lot of attention to the foam quality because it was for kids, and any problems there would mean we had failed.

It's now fairly common that the science of things change as learn more. We're not saying we are out of the water on this issue, but there is no EVA industry trade group out there to speak for us, so let us pass on an observation: For 20 years that we know of, the companies that cared to put good chemistry into their products have been able to make a clean product. These chemistry issues are not new. Besides this "new" formamide issue, the chemists in this industry seem to have dealt effectively with BPA's, PCB's, PVC compounds, Phthalates, and most recently the 46 REACH Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) and PAH's. So technically, the industry has a good track record of being able to produce good chemistry, so the main question seems to be is everyone using that chemistry? I wouldn't throw away your good tennis shoes, helmets or mats yet folks. Let the science work itself out, let the standards get set, and we will meet or exceed that, as we always have.

We are only talking about Wondermat® brand products here. We are NOT talking about products using the two words "Wonder Mat" or "Wonder Mats." Those products are NOT made by Popcorn International, Inc.