Thread: phenol resorcinol toxicity

Wet food resting on it should not be a problem as it is stable when wet.
Knife cuts will eventually cause tiny amounts of glue and wood to be ingested.
It is supposed to be stable in acidic conditions but there's no indication of how acidic.
My guess is the gut will break it down releasing alcohol, and formaldehyde, which also occur naturally in small amounts in the human body.
Most of what would be ingested is wood and I strongly suspect the natural resins in the wood itself are probably more toxic than the cured glue.

We have been around this circle many times on these forums.
Even some of the most toxic woods around require considerable amounts to be ingested before they would cause problems.
A couple fo years back I worked out that it would require a 50kg person to eat ~250 toothpicks in one sitting of Cooktown ironwood (one of Australia's most toxic wood) to kill them.
Different people will have different sensitivities so some people may be more allergic and may feel the effect with much smaller amounts but it represents the same risk as ANY wooden cutting board.
Overall risk has to be weighed up with the antibiotic nature of wood which naturally kills bugs etc better than any ceramic or plastic board.

There would be some issue with cutting/planing the wood in a confined space it as this would release formaldehyde gas and then you would breath that in. The same precautions as for MDF would cover this issue.

Have found further info at toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+722

Originally Posted by kenwahoo

Have found further info at toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+722

That info appears to be for uncured resin - things change dramatically when the resin is cured.