Strong Smell from Ikea bookcase

Have now purchased two bookcases from Ikea and have noticed a strong smell. I can only describe it as a chemical smell. Has anyone else noticed this or maybe it's just my imagination. The smell does fade away. I have one more bookcase to assemble and I think I will do so and leave in the garage for a while.

Yes, I noticed a smell off our Ikea bookcases when they were first assembled, I would have described it as a wood and varnish type smell - it disappeared after a couple of days.

Have you heard of formaldehyde? Its a chemical used in furniture, doors etc. Could it be something like that?

"IKEA is continually working with chemicals and is trying to phase-out the use of questionable substances. Some examples; IKEA has set an early voluntary ban on PVC (decided 1991) except in cables, an early ban of all organic brominates flame retardants in furniture (effective from 2000) and a ban on formaldehyde emitting paints and lacquers on all products (effective from 1993)."

quoted from: [broken link removed]

So... no, it's not formaldehyde.

We're replacing our internal doors shortly and I've read that this formaldehyde is in a lot of doors. Is there any reason to be concerned about it too much?

Formaldehyde is used in the production of MDF, but amounts given off post-production would be negligible unless you're highly sensitive.

Thanks Leo. Glad to know that.