Formaldehyde in the Indoor Environment

Salthammer, Tunga; Menteşe, Sibel; Marutzky, R.

doi:10.1021/cr800399g

Cited by 1,375 publications

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“…Formaldehyde concentrations in US residences regularly exceed benchmarks established for health protection (Logue et al 2011). In a study of California new homes (Offermann 2009 The largest source of formaldehyde in homes is thought to be building materials such as composite wood, coatings, fiberglass insulation and paper products (Baumann et al 2000, Salthammer et al 2010). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formaldehyde and acetaldehyde exposure mitigation in US residences: in‐home measurements of ventilation control and source control

et al. 2014

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Measurements were taken in new US residences to assess the extent to which ventilation and source control can mitigate formaldehyde exposure. Increasing ventilation consistently lowered indoor formaldehyde concentrations. However, at a reference air exchange rate of 0.35 h -1 , increasing ventilation was up to 60% less effective than would be predicted if the emission rate were constant. This is consistent with formaldehyde emission rates decreasing as air concentrations increase, as observed in chamber studies. In contrast, measurements suggest acetaldehyde emission was independent of ventilation rate. To (OEHHA 2013) may require combining source control with ventilation. Ventilation rates could be increased during the first year after construction when VOC concentrations tend to be highest.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formaldehyde and acetaldehyde exposure mitigation in US residences: in‐home measurements of ventilation control and source control

et al. 2014

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“…The European Union, the USA, China, and Japan now have legislation regulating the allowed levels of formaldehyde emission (FE) from wood and wood-based products, and without doubt there will be increased focus and controls placed on products that are known to release formaldehyde (Salthammer et al 2010). The main sources of FE from wood-based products such as medium density fiberboard (MDF), particleboard (PB), and plywood are the resins used, such as urea-formaldehyde (UF), melamine-modified urea formaldehyde (MUF), and phenol-formaldehyde (PF) (Salem et al 2011a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding of Formaldehyde Emissions from Solid Wood: An Overview

Salem¹,

Böhm²

2013

BioResources

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Wood is known to contain and emit volatile organic compounds including formaldehyde. The emission of formaldehyde from wood increases during its processing to lumber and wood-based panels (i.e., particleboard and fiberboard). This increased emission can be attributed to the processing procedure of wood, which includes drying, pressing, and thermo-hydrolysis. Formaldehyde is emitted from wood under very high heat and is not expected to be a significant source of the emissions from composite wood products during normal service. Formaldehyde is also detectable even if wood has never been heated as well as under more or less ambient conditions. The presence of formaldehyde in the emissions from wood that does not contain adhesive resin has been explained by thermal degradation of polysaccharides in the wood. The emission levels of formaldehyde depend on factors such as wood species, moisture content, outside temperature, and time of storage. Additionally, the pyrolysis of milled wood lignin at 450 °C yields benzaldehyde, and the pyrolysis of spruce and pinewood at 450 °C generate formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, 2-propenal, butanal, and butanone, which can be attributed to the breakdown of the polysaccharide fraction of the wood. Keywords INTRODUCTIONThe European Union, the USA, China, and Japan now have legislation regulating the allowed levels of formaldehyde emission (FE) from wood and wood-based products, and without doubt there will be increased focus and controls placed on products that are known to release formaldehyde (Salthammer et al. 2010). The main sources of FE from wood-based products such as medium density fiberboard (MDF), particleboard (PB), and plywood are the resins used, such as urea-formaldehyde (UF), melamine-modified urea formaldehyde (MUF), and phenol-formaldehyde (PF) (Salem et al. 2011a). Solid wood grown in normal forest conditions releases low levels of formaldehyde, particularly during the manufacturing process (Salem et al. 2012a). Furthermore, PF resins are frequently used in the manufacture of cork products. For this reason, formaldehyde and phenol are often measured together (Horn et al. 1998 Formaldehyde is a naturally occurring chemical in wood, as wood contains a diminutive, but still detectable amount of free formaldehyde. Formaldehyde can be formed from the main components of wood (cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin) as well as from its extractives (Schäfer and Roffael 2000) to different extents depending on the boundary conditions (pH value, temperature). On the other hand, the inorganic substances in wood do not directly contribute to formaldehyde release.The FE from solid wood increases at elevated temperatures and prolonged heating times (Schäfer and Roffael 2000), even in the absence of wood resin (Jiang et al. 2002). On the other hand, the degree of polymerization of cellulose seems to have no significant influence on the emission of formaldehyde; also, raising the temperature to 100 and 150 °C, the formaldehyde liberation from starch is also very low even at high reaction ...

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“…Typical indoor-generated pollutants, also found in libraries and archives, are volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as organic acids including acetic and formic acid (Blades et al, 2000;Tétreault, 2003) and aldehydes, including acetaldehyde and formaldehyde (Salthammer, 2010). A variety of VOCs are known to be emitted from paper and other cellulose-based materials during degradation (Emsley and Stevens, 1994;Lattuati-Derieux et al, 2004;Lattuati-Derieux et al, 2006;Dupont et al, 2007;Strlič et al, 2007;Ramalho et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Volatile aldehydes in libraries and archives

Fenech

Strlič

Cigić

et al. 2010

Atmospheric Environment

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Volatile aldehydes are produced during degradation of paper-based materials. This may result in their accumulation in archival and library repositories. However, no systematic study has been performed so far. In the frame of this study, passive sampling was carried out at ten locations in four libraries and archives. Despite the very variable sampling locations, no major differences were found, although air-filtered repositories were found to have lower concentrations while a non-ventilated newspaper repository exhibited the highest concentrations of volatile aldehydes (formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, furfural and hexanal). Five employees in one institution were also provided with personal passive samplers to investigate employees' exposure to volatile aldehydes. All values were lower than the presently valid exposure limits.The concentration of volatile aldehydes, acetic acid, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in general was also compared with that of outdoor-generated pollutants. It was evident that inside the repository and particularly inside archival boxes, the concentration of VOCs and acetic acid was much higher than the concentration of outdoor-generated pollutants, which are otherwise more routinely studied in connection with heritage materials. This indicates that further work on the pro-degradative effect of VOCs on heritage materials is necessary and that monitoring of VOCs in heritage institutions should become more widespread.

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Formaldehyde in the Indoor Environment

Abstract: In some publications, a boiling point of -118 °C is given. b Calculated with SPARC (http://ibmlc2.chem.uga.edu/sparc/).

Cited by 1,375 publications

References 380 publications

Formaldehyde and acetaldehyde exposure mitigation in US residences: in‐home measurements of ventilation control and source control

Formaldehyde and acetaldehyde exposure mitigation in US residences: in‐home measurements of ventilation control and source control

Understanding of Formaldehyde Emissions from Solid Wood: An Overview

Volatile aldehydes in libraries and archives

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