Formaldehyde

Organic compound with wide distribution. Occurs in the raw state as a colourless, pungent smelling gas. When present in an aqueous solution it is called formalin. Formaldehyde releasers include bronopol, diazolidinyl and imidazolidinyl ureaand quaternium-15.

• Irritant gas with a particular effect on mucous membranes. 90-100% is absorbed on inhalation (i.e. not exhaled) and later mostly metabolized to water and carbon dioxide in the upper airways.
• In Germany, about 600,000 tons per year are currently produced industrially. It is used as a starting material for resins, binding agents for the production of wood-based materials (pressboard), textile auxiliaries, disinfectants and preservatives, and as a raw material for pharmaceuticals.
• As a by-product of incomplete combustion processes, including in cigarette smoke.
• According to the WHO, formaldehyde is classified as a probable carcinogen of medium danger.
• Classification of the MAK-Commission: Category 4 (substances with carcinogenic properties where a non-genotoxic mechanism of action is predominant).
• Guide value of the Federal Health Office for indoor air: 0.1 ppm. Threshold: 0.08-1.6 ppm.
• Evaluation of formaldehyde with regard to the effect of an allergy on the reduction of the ability to work:
• Formaldehyde is regarded as a primarily occupational sensitizer and is widely used, although declining, as a disinfectant, preservative and sterilizing agent in the medical and, above all, technical field. It is a starting material for plastics and synthetic resins. Represented in many product categories, formaldehyde is most frequently found in paints, binders and cleaning agents.
• Relevant occupational exposures: Workplaces in the health care sector (skin contact with surface and instrument disinfectants), cleaning professions, painters, varnishers and related professions as well as in the metalworking industry (preservatives of cooling lubricants) and plastics production.
• Formaldehyde separators are widely used in personal care products and cosmetics, paints/varnishes and polishes, cleaning agents, in technical areas and occasionally in medical exteriors. Sources of exposure in the occupational environment include in particular water-miscible cooling lubricants (concentrates) and water-mixed cooling lubricants (emulsions) in metal-cutting metalworking.
• Effect of an allergy: "moderate" to "severe". The assessment as "serious" can be justified, for example, in the case of a high-grade sensitisation, i.e. a reaction to small amounts of formaldehyde and to formaldehyde releasers, as it can then be assumed that far more jobs are lost for the affected employee than in the case of a low-level, isolated formaldehyde sensitisation.

• Detection by the concentration of formic acid in the blood, but this is only useful during the exposure period, as formic acid is rapidly broken down in the body.
• Detection in material (e.g. pressboard) and ambient air is particularly useful when formaldehyde is handled at work.

Cave! Disinfectants can contribute to the exposure.

Maximum allowable concentrations:

• Cosmetics: 0,1%
• Oral hygiene products: 0,1%.
• Indoors: 0,1 ppm
• Chipboard:
  • E1: max. 0,1 ppm
  • E2: max. 1,0 ppm
  • E3: max. 1.4 ppm.

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