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We increasingly hear about formaldehyde and interior pullution.

What’s the formaldehyde?

Formaldehyde is a chemical compound, bolonging to the group of organic volatile compounds. It’s very common in a lot of places and play a danger for the human body, it enter indeed in the group of  carcinogenic materials made by AIRC (the international agency of the cancer research).

Where to find the formaldehyde

You can find in a lot of pieces of forniture:

  • In the textile industry it’s used in the form of resin called “antifold” to improve the dimensional stability of manifacts.
  • in the chemical industry is used as thickener in the plywood and chipboard.
  • It’s possible to find it also in the air fresheners that combining terpenes with ozone give origin to formaldehyde.
  • Since it’s a powerful bactericidal, it’s present in a lot of household disinfectants.

Because of its large use, formaldehyde is considered one of the most widespread interior pollution.

It could cause eyes, mouth and skin irritation, headache, constant tiredness and, in large quantity, asthma, pneumonia and lungs oedema. It happens also to be allergic to formladehyde and it causes dermatitis, itch, redness and eczemas.

How to protect yourself

  • It would be useful to avoid carpet, chipboard or plywood forniture in your bedroom; use instead solid wood without formaldehyde.
  • If your forniture is made with suspected materials you should put it open air and air out the places.
  • There are some plant able to neutralize this toxic substance, for example Ficus, Boston Fern and Dracaena.

Today, even if the law isn’t that strict, companies are increasingly focusing on this aspect.

One out the others is l’Opificio, Turinese company, which is working on this aspect and has menaged to demonstrate that it’s actually possibile to realize fabrics without formaldehyde

>>> Some days ago I read about this on l‘OpiBLOG. I recommend it if you are interested.