You may associate formaldehyde with dissecting frogs in biology class, but the chemical can be found in countless consumer products. And an analysis by ProPublica contends that formaldehyde fumes pose an incremental lifetime cancer risk greater than one incidence of cancer in every million people.
Not only that, the research found that about 320 million people live in areas where that risk is at least 10 times higher. In other areas, the cancer risk from formaldehyde is even worse.
While most people probably associate formaldehyde with preserving organic material, it can have many other uses. It’s used to bind particleboards in furniture and serves as an important building block in plastic.
There is no shortage of products using particleboard or plastic and, according to ProPublica, these products leak fumes into the air that people breath.
You may recall that flooring retail Lumber Liquidators first encountered financial problems when a 2015 report by CBS 60 Minutes revealed that flooring it imported from China had been soaked in formaldehyde.
A federal safety report released the following year found that the flooring leaked enough formaldehyde fumes to irritate the eyes, nose and throat. Investigators concluded that it gave off enough gas to cause difficulty breathing in people with asthma.
It also found that breathing formaldehyde fumes also increased cancer risks by a small amount. However, the ProPublica report released this week says those risks may be significantly greater.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may be ready to act, but efforts have been slowed by opposition from industry groups.
According to the National Institutes of Health, the relationship between cancer and exposure to formaldehyde has been investigated in seven case–control studies, five of which found elevated risks for overall exposure to formaldehyde or in higher exposure categories, including one in which the increase in risk was statistically significant.