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Keep Away from Formaldehyde, Warn Experts
Chemists learned how to make formaldehyde in the mid-1800s. One of its earliest uses in the United States was to preserve corpses shipped home from the Civil War.
But early in this century, industry discovered the chemical could be used to make plastics. And by the 1970s, it was showing up in everything from foam insulation to construction glue.
Thad Godish, an expert on indoor air quality at Ball State University in Indiana told the NPR radio station, "I could go into any house and I can find a formaldehyde-releasing product," says. He says scientists have known for a long time that it could cause health problems.
"Formaldehyde is a potent irritant," he says. "It's going to irritate the eyes, nose and throat. And one of the things that formaldehyde also causes is fatigue. It just wipes you out. You feel tired all day long. You feel like you haven't gotten a good night's sleep, and maybe you didn't, because it also interferes with sleep."
It can also cause asthma attacks, and long-term exposure is linked to cancers of the nasal passages and sinuses.
In February last federal health officials in US urged Katrina victims to move out of trailers supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency
( FEMA) after tests showed dangerous levels of formaldehyde fumes.
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guest
06/05/2008
re "A Few too Many", Joan Acocella, The New Yorker, long review of hangover research 2008.05.26 -- same levels of formaldehyde and formic acid in FEMA trailers and other sources (aspartame, dark wines and liquors, tobacco smoke): Murray 2008.06.05
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guest
06/04/2008
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