Indoor formaldehyde and acetaldehyde levels in the province of Bari, South Italy, and estimated health risk

Abstract

Indoor and outdoor formaldehyde and acetaldehyde levels were assessed to characterize pollution in dwellings in the city and the Province of Bari, also taking into account seasonal variability, and to investigate health effects of aldehyde exposure on the general population. In 2007, passive environmental monitoring was performed, for 24 hours, in the kitchen of 59 dwellings, as well as outdoors for 27 of them. A questionnaire probing personal and home characteristics was administered to all 182 subjects habitually resident in the homes. During the period January-June 2008, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde levels were monitored monthly in 20 of the investigated dwellings inhabited only by non smokers. Indoor formaldehyde and acetaldehyde concentrations were significantly higher (16.0 +/- 8.0 and 10.7 +/- 8.8 microg m(-3)) than outdoor concentrations (4.4 +/- 1.7 and 3.4 +/- 2.0 microg m(-3)), showing a correlation between indoor levels of the two aldehydes (r = 0.41; p = 0.001). In dwellings inhabited only by non smokers, formaldehyde concentrations were higher in the presence of furniture bought new or restored less than one year before (p = 0.03). Formaldehyde and acetaldehyde levels were significantly higher in winter months than in spring-summer months (F = 2.86, p = 0.02; F = 5.39, p < 0.001) and seemed to be influenced by the time that kitchen windows were kept open. As regards the effects on human health, a low prevalence of allergic disease and no association between any irritant or allergic complaints and indoor levels of the two aldehydes was observed. In conclusion, the results showed low indoor and outdoor concentrations of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, not generally posing a risk for human health.

Volatile organic compounds and risk of asthma and allergy: a systematic review

“…Four studies measured formaldehyde but did not relate exposure to the outcomes of interest [28,52,63,69]. 11 remaining studies [25,40,41,46,49,51,54,57,64,67,68] on formaldehyde exposure were at high risk of bias.…”

“…Acetaldehyde was investigated in four studies; all were considered to be at high risk of bias (table S1A) [41,51,57,64].…”

Levels and Health Risk of Carbonyl Compounds in Air of the Library in Guangzhou, South China

“…For example, Ho et al (2014) and Cavalcante et al (2006) reported that formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and acetone of indoor air in the library were the most abundant compounds with average concentrations < 10.0 µg m -3 (except with formaldehyde in a library of Xiamen), in accord with our results. Nevertheless, the average levels of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acetone in this study were considerably lower than those in subway stations and subway trains of Shanghai, China (Feng et al, 2010), at home of Beijing, China (Tang et al, 2009;Du et al, 2014) and Puertollano (Iberian Peninsula; Villanueva et al, 2015), residential indoor of United states (Liu et al, 2006) and South Italy (Lovreglio et al, 2009), and in office of China (Du et al, 2014). In all rooms tested in this study, formaldehyde concentrations were below the air quality guideline value (100 µg m -3 ) set by the World Health Organization.…”

“…Recently, the levels, distribution, and risks of carbonyl compounds in indoor air of various microenvironments have been widely investigated, including dwellings, shopping centers, furniture stores, office rooms, schools, hospitals, stations, cinemas, restaurants, etc. (Cavalcante et al, 2006;Lü et al, 2006;Lovreglio et al, 2009;Feng et al, 2010;Sarigiannis et al, 2011;Jiang et al, 2013;Cheng et al, 2014;Du et al, 2014;Villanueva et al, 2015;Huang et al, 2016). Many studies have reported that the carbonyl levels of indoor air were higher than those of outdoor along with seasonal and diurnal variation (Weng et al, 2009;Lü et al, 2010;Feng et al, 2010;Zhang et al, 2012;Jiang et al, 2013;Du et al, 2014;Villanueva et al, 2015).…”

Purity Determination of Acetaldehyde in an Acetaldehyde Certified Reference Material

“…Therefore numerous papers on quantitative analyses of acetaldehyde in both indoor and outdoor air have been reported, [1][2][3][4] and risk assessments are being conducted. 5 The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) regards acetaldehyde as a possible carcinogen which has been classified in Group 2B. 6 In Japan, acetaldehyde in environmental analysis is accurately controlled by the Japan Calibration Service System (JCSS).…”