Children are at Higher Risk

Imagine an invisible, toxic cloud that hangs two and a half to three feet off the ground. Imagine it’s in homes and in public buildings, including schools. Imagine the better-built these buildings are from an energy conservation standpoint (more air-tight), the more the gas collects.

Now let’s picture children about three feet tall going about their daily activities in this cloud. They stand, walk, and even run in the cloud. They sit at their desks in the cloud, and at library and cafeteria tables. Because proportionately they breathe more than adults due to their body mass to lung size ratio, they take in more of this gas. This gas is not imaginary, nor is the scenario. The gas is called formaldehyde and it’s classified as a carcinogen by the EPA and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) among others. We all live in this cloud every day, however, the ones who are most affected by the cloud are the most vulnerable of our population, the very young.

Where does formaldehyde come from? It’s contained in many products, materials, finishes, and furnishings. It’s used in particle board, wafer board or OSB (oriented strand board), and plywood, which is used for floor underlayment, backing in walls, and roof decking. Particle board is also used in most of today’s furniture. A few places you’ll see particle board is in cabinetry, paneling, shelving, desks, tables, chairs – anything that isn’t real wood all the way through - most likely has a wood or “photo wood” veneer with a particle board interior. It’s used in plastic products. Carpet has formaldehyde, as well as sheet vinyl, “pergo-style” wood laminate flooring, vinyl wallpaper, and paints. It’s found in fabrics and used in furniture production. So your child’s sleepwear, sheets, and bed all contain formaldehyde, as well as the furniture at school and at home. That “new home” “new car” “new furniture” and “new carpet” smell is in large part the smell of formaldehyde.

What to do? Build green for starters. Green buildings, when under construction and when brand-new, don’t have a “new building” smell. There are many differences in a LEED® or CHPS building, for example, than a typical building. There are also other rating systems that will produce results (Energy Star although it is not specific to IAQ). Open the doors and windows every day for half an hour or whatever is practical in order to exchange air until you can provide better air circulation. Get rid of particle-board laden furniture. Remove carpets and replace with hard surfaces that don’t contain formaldehyde. When purchasing rugs, purchase “real” fiber rugs like wool, cotton, or jute. Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems should be designed to bring in fresh air from outside, and to exhaust stale air. There are some increasingly sophisticated ways to pull in pre-heated or pre-cooled air in HVAC systems. All green building standards recognize the importance of maximizing the quality of inside air.

You can purchase a formaldehyde test kit online. The kit will have information on safe and unsafe levels of formaldehyde so you will be able to interpret test results.

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/MMG/MMG.asp?id=216&tid=39
http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/iris_drafts/recordisplay.cfm?deid=223614
Formaldehyde Exposure Among Children: A Potential Building Block of Asthma. Environmental Health Protection 118:313–317; McGwin et al.
Goldmacher VS, Thilly WG. Formaldehyde is mutagenic for cultured human cells. Mutat. Res. 1983;116:417-422.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/formaldehyde#r1