What is formaldehyde?
Formaldehyde is a chemical widely used by industry to manufacture building materials and numerous household products. It is a good preservative, makes an excellent adhesive, widely used in buildings and furnishing industries and found in small amounts in some textiles as an anti-wrinkle agent. It is also a by-product of combustion and certain other natural processes and may be present in substantial concentrations both indoors and outdoors. Formaldehyde has been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals and there is some limited evidence that is causes cancer in humans.
A…It is a chemical that is released into the air as a pungent gas. It has a number of useful properties: it’s a good preservative and makes an excellent adhesive. Therefore, it is used widely in the building and furnishing industries. It is also found in small amounts in some textiles as an anti-wrinkle agent.
Formaldehyde is a chemical compound which is widely used in industrial manufacturing and a number of other industries. Many people are familiar with formaldehyde in the form of formalin, an aqueous solution of formaldehyde which is used as an embalming preservative. This chemical is toxic, known to cause cancer and a variety of other health problems, and for this reason, most people make an effort to avoid formaldehyde. This chemical is the simplest of the aldehydes, chemical compounds which include a terminal carbonyl group. A carbonyl group is a group of atoms which includes a carbon atom double-bonded to an oxygen atom; the chemical formula for formaldehyde is HCHO, making it a useful building block for other, more complex aldehydes. Pure formaldehyde is a colorless gaseous compound, and it is extremely reactive. For this reason, it is often mixed into chemical compounds to form a stable substance. In addition to being used in things like glues, preservatives, antiseptics, resins, p
Formaldehyde is an important industrial chemical used to make other chemicals, building materials, and household products. It is one of the large family of chemical compounds called volatile organic compounds or “VOCs”. The term volatile means that the compounds vaporize, that is, become a gas, at normal room temperatures. Formaldehyde serves many purposes in products. It is used as a part of: • the glue or adhesive in pressed wood products (particleboard, hardwood plywood, and medium density fiberboard (MDF)); • preservatives in some paints, coatings, and cosmetics; • the coating that provides permanent press quality to fabrics and draperies; • the finish used to coat paper products; and • certain insulation materials (urea-formaldehyde foam and fiberglass insulation). Formaldehyde is released into the air by burning wood, kerosene or natural gas, by automobiles, and by cigarettes. Formaldehyde can off-gas from materials made with it. It is also a naturally occurring substance. The U.
At room temperature, formaldehyde is a colorless, flammable gas that has a distinct, pungent smell. It is also known as methanal, methylene oxide, oxymethyline, methylaldehyde, and oxomethane. Formaldehyde is naturally produced in small amounts in our bodies. It is used in the production of fertilizer, paper, plywood, and urea-formaldehyde resins. It is also used as a preservative in some foods and in many products used around the house, such as antiseptics, medicines, and cosmetics.
