The Fuss About Formaldehyde

摘要

Most of us think of formaldehyde as embalming fluid or preservative. But formaldehyde is a chemical used in glues and adhesives, and a preservative used in paints and finishes. It reacts with phenol, urea or melamine to producernphenol-formaldehyde resins, urea-formaldehyde resin and melamine resin. PF resin generally emits much less formaldehyde than UF resin. You will see products are labeled as urea-formaldehyde-free PF products, which are indeed environmentally preferred.rnFormaldehyde is so widely used that annual international production is well over 45 billions pounds. Unfortunately, if a product off-gasses formaldehyde, it is a 'probable human carcinogen' according to the U.S. EPA. I want to underscorernthe word if, because formaldehyde in building products is not an indoor air pollutant if it doesn't get into the air, or if it off-gasses at such low levels that it is not hazardous.