Health & Safety
Formaldehyde is an extensively regulated material. Mandatory government regulations set standards to protect human health and the environment. These requirements allow for the safe production, storage, handling and use of this important building block chemical.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sets standards for workplace exposures to formaldehyde. These comprehensive health standards include limits on permissible exposures, requirements for monitoring employee exposures in the workplace, protective measures including engineering controls, medical surveillance and communication and training about hazards.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sets standards that limit formaldehyde emissions from wood products for use in manufactured housing. Three agencies - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency(EPA), Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) - have addressed indoor air exposure to formaldehyde. Since industry voluntarily adopted product emission standards and low-emitting resins were developed, indoor formaldehyde emissions have declined significantly. CPSC determined that independent CPSC action was superfluous given the voluntary actions and low levels of formaldehyde.
California Air Resources Board's (CARB) recently released a report on indoor air pollution, which includes numerous references to formaldehyde. Read FCI's comments.
Everyday Benefits
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Everyday Medical Applications
Urinary tract infections afflict people worldwide. In the United States and Canada more than $1 billion is spent each year to treat them. The majority of the cases are treated using a derivative of formaldehyde (methenamine). While the chemical reactions may be a bit complex, the bottom line is that formaldehyde kills the infection. Antibiotics represent one alternative to using formaldehyde-based drugs, however, bacterial resistance develops using antibiotics. Bacteria are incapable of developing resistance to formaldehyde, so it remains the treatment of choice.
Formaldehyde is used to create the enteric or hard capsules that are used to deliver drugs in the form of pills to millions of people worldwide every day. The formaldehyde-based pill coatings slow the dissolution of the capsule and promote maximum absorption of the medicine.
Topical creams, cosmetics and personal hygiene products contain active ingredients that prevent the growth of potentially harmful bacteria. Some of these ingredients are derivatives of formaldehyde.
Anyone suffering from coronary artery disease knows the horrible pain and anxiety that accompanies angina – the suffocating chest pain associated with lack of oxygen to the heart muscle. The nitroglycerin pills placed under the tongue that ease these attacks are made from a formaldehyde byproduct.
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Implanted Medical Devices and Prosthetics
Formaldehyde is used to make many types of plastic with very different properties. One of those plastics is used to manufacture such delicate and lifesaving items as artificial heart valves and pacemakers.
It is also used as to make artificial limbs. Thousands of people each year, including badly wounded military service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, are fitted with prosthetic limbs that allow them to lead fuller lives.
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The Life Sciences
The life sciences would be lost without the benefits that formaldehyde provides the industry. The compound is used in research laboratories throughout the world as a tissue preservative and in processes that identify proteins, DNA and RNA. So it even benefits those in the field of forensics by enhancing their ability to separate complex proteins such as blood and make a positive identification of its source. Formaldehyde also plays a pivotal role in furthering the study of proteins and genes by the pharmaceutical industry. Since the end of the 19th century, Formaldehyde has been used in embalming for its preservative and disinfection qualities.
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Formaldehyde is Safe
There is widespread confidence that when formaldehyde is handled and used properly, the public and workers are protected. A recent international review of over 150 published studies concluded that the human health effects of formaldehyde are well understood and require no further study. The well-respected review also found that exposure is controlled in occupational settings.
