FORMALDEHYDE AND ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL EMISSIONS FROM SHEETFED OFFSET LITHOGRAPHIC PRINTING OPERATIONS IN PRINTING HOUSE IN THAILAND

In Thailand, the emissions of air pollutants from industrial areas are one of the main sources of airpollution. It is generally believed that indoor air pollution such as VOCs as negative causes for ahealth risk. In our research, we measured the concentration of two Volatile organic compounds,formaldehyde and isopropyl alcohol, emissions from sheet-fed offset lithographic printingoperations during January - July 2006 in Bangkok, Thailand. The portable ambient air analyzer wereused to collect and analyze formaldehyde and isopropyl alcohol concentration. The 4 months averageconcentrations of formaldehyde and isopropyl alcohol were 5.1 + 3.0 ppm and 267 + 67 ppm,respectively. The results showed that formaldehyde concentration in sheet-fed offset printingprocess area was oviously found to be much above the guidelines values prescribed by the OSHAstandard for human health (the OSHA standard for formaldehyde is 2 ppm as short-term exposure limit).Although, concentrations of isopropyl alcohol was not observed to be higher the standard of OSHAwhich is suggested for isopropyl alcohol as 400 ppm (980 mg/m3). We observed that the emissionof formaldehyde was associated with the use of solvents in this printing house.