Ok, My bad I wasn't specific enough when I mentioned melamine. I was referring to the overall panel as a whole, but mainly thinking and concentrating on the gassing of the chip board (particleboard) in between the melamine.



The comment about placing our food in plastic bags, driving plastic cars, etc... had no direct correlation on what I was talking about. Those are all different types of polymers there. Heck, if I was concerned about using plastics, I would have questioned the usability of the acrylic front panel on the cage. But lets stay on point.



Bighurt gave some good data to form a valid opinion with and with that, we can surmise that the polymer is stable and not much of a threat.

I'm not wanting to create a debate back and forth as that would be nothing but a waste of everyones time, but only to clarify my original question so it's better understood, please allow me to re-phrase it:

What about the outgassing of the core material in the finished melamine covered panel. The chipboard.

We all know it's produced using formaldehyde as a bonding agent and while it does produce levels of formaldehyde vapor, and formaldehyde is known to be carcinogenic, I was looking for info and thoughts showing the overall 'threat' this would introduce to animal life surrounded by warm formaldehyde bonded wood.



The msds I read on one manufacturers site claimed that while the majority of problems obviously comes from exposure to dust particulates, there is significant risk from the vapors alone. It then goes on to mention the epidemiology studies that have shown the nasal cancer it causes in exposed rats and mice (but interestingly not hamsters) as well as humans. Unfortunately, without taking an air sample within a cage, there is really no way to make an accurate guess as to the levels of vapor within.



Now, as I said before, I've made cages with the material before and the snakes within are still very much alive and kicking and doing quite well (And have been for a number of years), so I'm not preaching that it's this horrible nasty stuff that we should all avoid at all costs... At the moment, I'm quite neutral to the material myself. It was just a question that popped into my mind as I was working on a cage.

I was curious about the long term carcinogenic effects that occur over time and wanting to see if anyone had any sort of issues with reptiles that were housed longterm. (Not to argue, but 5 years is not a lot of time when dealing with the development of certain cancers)

The one thing I am really curious about now is the porosity of the melamine covering.









And I did read the water company report. Thats why I blew a wad of cash on a whole house filter years ago and still buy distilled water to drink.

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