POLLUTANTS voc
Formaldehyde
Formaldehyde is a volatile organic compound, characterized by a pungent odor.
It can be present both indoors and outdoors, almost always at a lower concentration. Besides being a product of combustion (tobacco smoke and other sources of combustion), it is also emitted by urea-formaldehyde resins used for insulation (so-called UFFI) and by resins used for chipboard and wood plywood, for upholstery, carpet , curtains and other textiles subjected to anti-crease treatments and other furnishing materials.
Formaldehyde has therefore been widely used for many years in the production of building materials, furniture, cleaning products, glues, paints, disinfectants, plastics, dyes, packaging, etc .; it can also be present in clothing and upholstery, as it is often used in textile printing treatments.
High relative humidity and high temperatures favor greater vaporization of formaldehyde than wood materials.
Relatively high amounts of this compound are also produced during incomplete combustions; in fact it is often found as a secondary product in vehicle exhaust gases and especially in cigarette smoke.
Health effects
Formaldehyde causes eye, nasal and throat irritation, sneezing, coughing, fatigue and skin erythema. In 2004 formaldehyde was indicated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer among the compounds of group 1: certain carcinogens.
- The smell can be perceived at about 30-600 µg / cubic meter
- at 0.1-3 mg / mcubo there is the threshold where the irritation of the nose, throat and eyes occurs
- pulmonary edema and pneumonia arise at about 37-60 mg / cubo
- about 60-125 mg / mcubo there is death. Inside buildings the concentration of formaldehyde can vary a lot based on the polluting sources present. Generally it is around 20-60 µg / mc
WARNING!
Formaldehyde is strongly suspected of being one of the agents most implicated in the Sick Building Syndrome, so much so that it is used as a reference unit to express the contamination of an indoor environment by a mixture of non-solvable substances.
Health effects
Formaldehyde causes eye, nasal and throat irritation, sneezing, coughing, fatigue and skin erythema. In 2004 formaldehyde was indicated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer among the compounds of group 1: certain carcinogens.
- The smell can be perceived at about 30-600 µg / cubic meter
- at 0.1-3 mg / mcubo there is the threshold where the irritation of the nose, throat and eyes occurs
- pulmonary edema and pneumonia arise at about 37-60 mg / cubo
- about 60-125 mg / mcubo there is death. Inside buildings the concentration of formaldehyde can vary a lot based on the polluting sources present. Generally it is around 20-60 µg / mc
WARNING!
Formaldehyde is strongly suspected of being one of the agents most implicated in the Sick Building Syndrome, so much so that it is used as a reference unit to express the contamination of an indoor environment by a mixture of non-solvable substances.
Measures to reduce exposure
Smoke
Carcinogens produced by cigarette smoke stagnate indoors.
Materials
use products that do not contain it, do not buy chipboard furniture with formaldehyde-based resins, etc..
Ventilation
Heat and humidity increase the emissions of the sources, it is also advisable to encourage air changes and maintain humidity between 40 and 60%.
THE SOLUTION
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