Dive Brief:

• Lowe’s has responded to a report that some of its laminate flooring may be contaminated by toxins by suspending sales of it, in what the retailer calls an “abundance of caution.”

• The report comes from one of the concerned hedge fund analysts, Chinese investor Xuhua Zhou, who had also been in touch with the CBS News program “60 Minutes” regarding potentially harmful substances in flooring sold by Lumber Liquidators.

• One of the independent labs employed by that program also tested some samples of flooring sold by Lowe’s and found levels of formaldehyde ten times above the safety standard, according to reports.

Dive Insight:

Lowe’s says that the flooring in question was sold through its e-commerce site or by special order and wasn’t present in stores. (Not that that matters much to anyone who might have bought it.) But this response is in stark contrast to Lumber Liquidators, which has fought hard against the idea that there’s a safety issue with its flooring, and has encountered government watchdog investigations, possible criminal charges, and several lawsuits along the way.

“We are very focused on any concerns that our customers might have," Lowe’s spokesperson Karen Cobb told MarketWatch. She also said that the company would be conducting its own testing and directed concerned customers to call customer service.