formaldehyde

Furniture can raise indoor air contaminants with toxic emissions of VOC and formaldehyde.. While furniture is classified as a subject of safety and has quality labeling, there is a lack of domestic regulations related to contaminant emissions with the exception of sinks. When looking at the analysis on environment-related patients related to the smell or odors from furniture every year, patients suffering from asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis are on the rise.

Mechanical ventilation may be necessary to provide adequate ventilation in new houses due to the relatively low rates of infiltration achieved in new construction. However, in hot and humid climates, increased ventilation may raise indoor humidity to an undesirable level. A study was undertaken by the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) to evaluate the humidity effects of different mechanical ventilation strategies for such climates. The study was conducted in a new 141-m2 manufactured house sited at the FSEC campus.

Traditionally, houses in the U.S. have been ventilated by passive infiltration in combination with active window opening. However in recent years, the construction quality of residential building envelopes has been improved to reduce infiltration, and the use of windows for ventilation also may have decreased due to a number of factors. Thus, there has been increased interest in engineered ventilation systems for residences.

Indoor air quality (IAQ) in new houses, particularly occupant's inhalation exposure to toxic, irritant and odorous chemicals, has received comparatively little attention among house builders and product manufacturers. The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of potential concern in new houses include formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetic acid and naphthalene. These VOCs are emitted by a variety of wood products and other materials used to finish the interiors of most houses.

Formaldehyde, less-volatile aldehydes, and terpene hydrocarbons are generally the predominant air contaminants in new manufactured and site-built houses. This study was conducted to identify the major sources of these compounds in a typically constructed, new manufactured house. Specimens of materials used within the house envelope were collected from the production facility. These were individually preconditioned for 19 4 days and tested for emissions of formaldehyde and the other target compounds using small-scale chambers.

A study to measure indoor concentrations and emission rates of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including formaldehyde, was conducted in a new, unoccupied manufactured house installed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) campus. The house was instrumented to continuously monitor indoor temperature and relative humidity, heating and air conditioning system operation, and outdoor weather. It also was equipped with an automated tracer gas injection and detection system to estimate air change rates every 2 h.

The report summarizes information on indoor pollution by formaldehyde (HCHO) in European countries participating in the concerted action "Indoor Air Quality and Its Impact on Man" (COST project 613). Major scope of the report is to give concise information to people involved in research planning, policy making and regulatory activities and to identify a European view of the issue. The summary includes a short review of health effects of formaldehyde, of existing air quality guidelines and standards and of indoor sources of formaldehyde.

In past 20 years, the average prevalence of asthma in China has been growing up from 0.9 % to about3.0 %. We carried out these studies to find out the reasons and relative molecular mechanisms. Datamultiple-regression was used for prevalence and risk factor investigation (1990-2000) and animalexperiments were used for mechanism study.

We developed an air cleaner (AC) for chemical sensitivity (CS) patients. The AC have a high efficiencyair filter and a special activated carbon filter to remove airborne particles and gaseous contaminants.Using the AC, we conducted a monitoring experiment to investigate improvement of indoor air quality(IAQ) in the actual residences of CS patients. In the experiment, IAQ in the residences of nine CSpatients was measured before and after AC operation.

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.