Super Eco

Photo credit: Gaetan Lee, Flickr

Formaldehyde (H₂CO) is a basic building block of organic chemistry. It is a carcinogen that is produced industrially from the oxidation of methanol in the presence of a catalyst (usually silver). About six billion pounds of formaldehyde are produced each year. OSHA lists it as an air contaminant. The Superfund catalogs it as an extremely hazardous substance. The Clean Air Act qualified it as a hazardous air pollutant. It is used in building materials, glue, foam insulation and pressed-wood products such as plywood, particle board, paneling and wood finishes. It is also formed as a pollution by-product of combustion. It is found in cigarette and wood smoke, exhaust from automobiles, incinerators and power plants.

Floor coverings such as carpet and padding often contain formaldehyde. It is also used in furniture, paper products, cosmetics, deodorants, shampoos, fabric dyes, inks, disinfectants, and deodorizers. Mobile homes and motor homes are known for high amounts of formaldehyde since so many of their components may be made from particle board or pressed-wood products.

Following hurricane Katrina more than 275,000 people were moved into FEMA trailers—recently manufactured mobile homes. They immediately began to suffer the effects of formaldehyde exposure. The indoor air quality in many of these trailers, and in a lot of newly constructed buildings, often substantially exceeds EPA maximums due to offgassing of formaldehyde.  Toxic levels cause nose bleeds, headaches, respiratory health problems and longer term effects on the body including cancer. Formaldehyde offgassing from building materials is reduced but not eliminated within the first year after installation, so indoor air quality may never fall below the EPA maximum without removing the products that are offgassing.

Formaldehyde has many other uses. It is used in photography to develop film, and it is used by scientists as a "tissue fixative" to preserve laboratory samples. It is commonly used as an embalming fluid.