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Formaldehyde Causes More Cancer Than Any Other Toxic Air Pollutant. Little Is Being Done to Curb the Risk

In a world flush with hazardous air pollutants, there is one that causes far more cancer than any other, one that is so widespread that nobody in the United States is safe from it. It is a chemical so pervasive that a new analysis by ProPublica found it exposes everyone to elevated risks of developing cancer no matter where they live. And perhaps most worrisome, it often poses the greatest risk in the one place people feel safest: inside their homes. As the backbone of American commerce, formaldehyde is a workhorse in major sectors of the economy, preserving bodies in funeral homes, binding particleboards in furniture and serving as a building block in plastic. The risk isn’t just to the workers…

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Featured

 EPA reverses course on safe formaldehyde exposure threshold

For the first time, the US Environmental Protection Agency is suggesting there’s a safe threshold for formaldehyde exposure. The EPA and other leading public health bodies have long measured the chemical’s health risks by its potential to cause cancer even at imperceptible exposures. In its updated draft risk-calculation memo, released Dec. 3, the agency now says that if individuals are not exposed to the chemical at levels that typically cause irritation under its conditions of use, they’re protected against all effects, including cancer.

 Formaldehyde Risk from Common Personal Care Products

More than half of Black and Latina women in a study in Los Angeles reported using personal care products that contain formaldehyde-releasing preservatives. Given that formaldehyde is known to cause cancer in humans, the study reveals both critical safety gaps in how personal care products are regulated in the United States and their disproportionate health impacts on women of color.

Articles of Interest

Formaldehyde is everywhere, but poses dangers to our health. Here's what to know

It's incredibly pervasive. Formaldehyde is essentially ubiquitous, so indoors the concentration is particularly high because lots of products emit it, like furniture, flooring, sometimes even clothing. But it's also outdoors and pretty much everywhere outdoors.

The exposure to formaldehyde in industries and health care centers: A systematic review and probabilistic health risk assessment

Formaldehyde is classified as a definitive human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The workers in several industries such as foundry, melamine, resin, and health care centers (pathology and anatomy laboratories and operating rooms) are exposed to airborne formaldehyde.

There’s Formaldehyde in Your Food Packaging, But That’s Probably OK

For a start, we get a lot more of some of these chemicals from actual food than from package-leaching in the first place. One of the substances the report noted was formaldehyde; a known human carcinogen you’re probably familiar with as an embalming fluid, or the stuff Damien Hirst preserves dead sharks in.

Why Are These 6 Beauty Ingredients Banned in California?

The presence of formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing ingredients in hair-straightening formulas like keratin treatments and relaxers is a huge problem that’s been the subject of multiple FDA warnings and a proposed ban on a federal level. When these hair treatments are heated during the application process, formaldehyde is released as a gas, posing serious inhalation risks, especially when salons aren’t properly ventilated. You should never apply hair smoothers with formaldehyde — which may go by the names formalin or methylene glycol on ingredient lists — at home, cautions the FDA.

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NIH

People are exposed to formaldehyde in the workplace and in their home environment, but the highest levels are found in work settings where formaldehyde is used or produced. Exposure to formaldehyde can occur in numerous industries and professions, such as manufacturers of formaldehyde and formaldehyde-based resins, woodworking, and furniture making. Morticians and laboratory workers may also be exposed to formaldehyde.