Applications
When you wash your hair or brush your teeth, you’re using toiletries that are made safer because they are preserved against the growth of bacteria.
Formaldehyde has been routinely used for decades in hundreds of products. Some of them touch your body every day and you don't even know it. Many different resins are created from formaldehyde. These resins in turn are used to create other compounds having different properties. These compounds can be used as preservatives in personal hygiene products because they kill bacteria or used to make other products more effective in terms of foaming action such as soaps and detergents. These products improve your hygiene and subsequently your health.
The science behind the use of this simple molecule is extensive. Chemistry has allowed the responsible use of formaldehyde in all kinds of every day products such as plastics, carpeting, clothing, resins, glues, medicines, vaccines and the film used in x-rays. The very first times that you encounter formaldehyde as a child, you don’t know it, but it's the medium in which you receive vaccinations for childhood diseases. These include diphtheria, polio and influenza, to name a few.
Formaldehyde probably makes its first lasting impression during biology class when young students dissect their first frogs. Other students may be presented with fetal pigs for dissection. In either case, the animals have been preserved with formaldehyde to ensure that the organ systems remain intact for anatomical investigation. It’s also used to preserve cadavers for use by medical schools in teaching human anatomy.
Along with the memories of that first dissection many students also remember the pungent smell that accompanied their first wielding of a scalpel. That smell is the preservative formaldehyde. It has been used for tissue and organ preservation for more than a century and has greatly assisted biological science. By preserving tissues, organs and entire bodies, the teaching of science is spread throughout the world.
Formaldehyde is a critical ingredient in the production of hundreds of items that improve everyday life. While little or no formaldehyde is present in the final product, the chemical is an essential building block in the production of some of the most common consumer items, including paper towels, photographic film, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, lipstick and nail polish and acts as an anti-bacterial agent in such consumer products as mascara.
In many instances, because of formaldehyde’s unique physical and chemical properties, few compounds can replace it as a raw material without reducing performance and making the final products more expensive. Whether it’s plywood for home construction, fuel system components for automobiles or door and window insulation for modern airliners, using formaldehyde translates into greater utility for consumers in the form of extended use, consistent quality and improved performance and safety.
