WeWork removes toxic phone booths from its Glenwood office in Raleigh

RALEIGH – WeWork has removed a number of potentially toxic retro phone booths from its One Glenwood location in Raleigh.

A company spokesperson confirmed that the booths were taken out of service three weeks ago “when the issue was brought to our attention,” and extracted from the site over the weekend.

“The removal process began on Friday and was completed by Sunday afternoon,” the spokesperson told WRAL TechWire on Monday.

The news come after the co-working giant issued a statement a few weeks back acknowledging that it would be removing around 1,600 phone booths from its U.S. and Canada locations due to potentially elevated levels of formaldehyde caused by the manufacturer.

In the email sent to members, the firm confirmed that it had received complaints from some members and were working to remedy the situation as quickly as possible.

“After a member informed us of odor and eye irritation, WeWork performed an analysis, including having an outside consultant conduct a series of tests on a sampling of phone booths. Upon receiving results late last week, we began to take all potentially impacted phone booths out of service.”

The spokesperson said the phone booths at its Durham location in the One City Center are not affected and would remain. WeWork has a total of six locations around North Carolina.

Formaldehyde is commonly used in wood construction and manufacturing, and is known to be a human carcinogen. Exposure at elevated levels can cause eye, skin, nose and throat irritation, and potentially some types of cancer.

The news comes at a tense time for the company. Last week, Japanese conglomerate Softbank confirmed a massive deal to bail out WeWork after its failed initial public offering last month.

The deal will give SoftBank up to 80 percent ownership of the startup. The Japanese company is pumping $5 billion into The We Company and accelerating a $1.5 billion equity investment originally due next year. It’s also offering to buy up to $3 billion worth of stock from existing investors and shareholders.

Meanwhile, media reports are focused on looming job cuts from a workforce of some 15,000.