Coming into contact with breathing in or touching formaldehyde may affect your health. Protect your health by reducing the levels of formaldehyde in your home. How can I lower levels of formaldehyde in my home? You can lower the amount of formaldehyde in your home by taking the following steps: Reduce formaldehyde already in the home.
Install and use exhaust fans as much as possible. Keep the temperature and humidity inside your home at the lowest comfortable setting.
Make your home smoke free. Choose home products with low or no formaldehyde for future purchases. Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
Formaldehyde and Your Health. Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Sources of formaldehyde in the environment include Certain manufactured wood products such as cabinets, furniture, plywood, particleboard, and laminate flooring Permanent press fabrics like those used for curtains and drapes or on furniture Household products such as glues, paints, caulks, pesticides, cosmetics, and detergents.
Smoke from cigarettes and other tobacco products, gas stoves, and open fireplaces. Laminate Flooring. Cigarette Smoke. Formaldehyde in your home. It is a byproduct of combustion and certain other natural processes, and so is also found in:. Learn more from the Consumer Product Safety Commission about products that contain formaldehyde. The primary way you can be exposed to formaldehyde is by breathing air containing off-gassed formaldehyde. Everyone is exposed to small amounts of formaldehyde in the air that has off-gassed from products, including composite wood products.
It is found in gas stoves and open fireplaces, as well as outdoors in automobile emissions. Since formaldehyde is used in the manufacturing of many household items—from furniture to cosmetics—it is present in every home. Higher concentrations of formaldehyde are found in homes with new products or new construction, as well as in homes with people who smoke tobacco products.
In , a report by the U. If you are not sensitive to it, you may never experience any symptoms. There are, however, some p eople who are more likely to be affected by breathing in even small amounts of formaldehyde:.
People with asthma , chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder COPD , or other respiratory illnesses may experience an increase in breathing problems when exposed to formaldehyde, even for short periods of time.
Studies have found that long-term exposure to formaldehyde can increase the risk of developing certain types of cancer in rats, particularly those that affect their nose and throat. The National Cancer Institute states that some studies of humans have indicated that high or prolonged exposure to formaldehyde is associated with certain types of cancer.
This is especially true for professionals who are potentially exposed at work. As we mentioned above, formaldehyde can be found in nearly every corner of your home. Since it is a chemical used to manufacture so many different products, the off-gassing of formaldehyde can occur anywhere from the paint on your bedroom walls to that box of fabric softeners sitting atop your dryer.
Here, we will narrow it down by room, so you can be aware of which household items might be giving off formaldehyde , so you can know where to take action. Your bedroom should be a place where you can rest without worry. However, the very place you are resting your head each night may have products that are a potential source of formaldehyde off-gassing. Formaldehyde may be found in the paint on your walls, as well as in the carpet adhesives on the floor.
If you have wood paneling on your walls, formaldehyde may be present there, too. That is right—if your bedroom furniture is made of pressed-wood products such as fiberboard, plywood, or particle board, it may have been manufactured using formaldehyde. Additionally, if any of the furniture is made with a fire retardant, it could contain formaldehyde. At room temperature in your home, formaldehyde turns to gas and releases into the air you breathe.
Your closet is another place that formaldehyde can be found. Clothing made with fabric dyes or synthetic fabrics, as well as permanent-press clothing and anything with a wrinkle-resistant spray or fire retardant on it, could be made using formaldehyde, so anywhere you store your clothes may have this chemical.
Your bathroom may seem like an unlikely spot for manufacturing chemicals but, alas, it can be found in many products you may not have suspected. The manufacturing process used to create toilet paper often uses formaldehyde. Again, the way your shampoos and soaps are manufactured—though there are potential all-natural or organic products on the market—may be processed with formaldehyde as a preservative and anti-bacterial agent.
While this does help ensure your shampoo is shelf stable for longer than a week or two, it also means that you could be washing up with a harmful chemical. Products like nail polish, makeup, hairspray or styling balm could come from a factory using formaldehyde.
As it sits in your cabinets or on your shelves, it may release the chemical in the form of gas into the air. Kitchens, though somewhat notorious for being breeding grounds for harmful bacteria, and mold growth , could contain formaldehyde as well. Since formaldehyde from older construction is usually no longer present and there is not much new furniture that goes into a kitchen, those constructed decades ago may contain less formaldehyde than other areas of your home.
The CDC reports that formaldehyde levels reduce over time and that most is released within two years. However, for newer homes with better insulation, less air movement may cause levels to remain for longer.
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