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 Mobile ViewENERGY SAVINGS in buildings ENGINEERED WOOD Flooring ENGINEERED WOOD Products ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS - INSPECT, TEST, REMEDY AIR CLEANER PURIFIER TYPES AIR FILTERS for HVAC SYSTEMS AIR POLLUTANTS, COMMON INDOOR ALLERGEN TESTS for buildings ALLERGENS in buildings, RECOGNIZING ALLERGY TESTS for PEOPLE ALLERGY TEST ACCURACY ANIMAL ALLERGENS / PET DANDER ANIMAL ENTRY POINTS in buildings ANIMAL ODORS IN buildings ASBESTOS IDENTIFICATION IN buildings BASEMENT MOLD BATHROOM MOLD BIBLIOGAPHY for ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH, MOLD, IAQ BIOLOGICAL POLLUTANTS BLUE vs YELLOW COMBUSTION FLAMES BLUERAY Recall BUILDING SAFETY HAZARDS GUIDE BUILDING SETTLEMENT CARBON MONOXIDE - CO CARBON MONOXIDE WARNING CABINETS & COUNTERTOPS CARPETING & INDOOR AIR QUALITY CARPETING, SELECTION & INSTALLATION CAT DANDER in buildings Cell phone Radiation Hazards CHAIN OF CUSTODY - TEST SAMPLE CHIMNEY INSPECTION DIAGNOSIS REPAIR CHIMNEYS & Flues - Asbestos Transite Pipe CHINESE DRYWALL HAZARDS DRYER VENTING DRYWALL INSTALLATION Best Practices DRYWALL MOLD DRYWALL MOLD RESISTANT ENERGY SAVINGS in buildings ENGINEERED WOOD Flooring ENGINEERED WOOD Products FIRE DAMAGE vs MOLD DAMAGE FLOOD DAMAGE ASSESSMENT, SAFETY & CLEANUP MOLD: A COMPLETE GUIDE TO MOLD ACCURACY OF VARIOUS MOLD TEST METHODS ACTION GUIDE - WHAT TO DO ABOUT INDOOR MOLD CLEARANCE INSPECTIONS - MOLD CLEANUP DO IT YOURSELF MOLD CLEANUP EMF ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS & HUMAN EXPOSURE ENERGY SAVINGS in buildings FIND MOLD in buildings, HOW TO FLOOD DAMAGE ASSESSMENT, SAFETY & CLEANUP FUNGICIDAL SPRAY & SEALANT USE GUIDE HIDDEN MOLD, HOW TO FIND HUMIDITY CONTROL TO PREVENT MOLD INDOOR AIR QUALITY & HOUSE TIGHTNESS INDOOR AIR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT GUIDE Air Pollutants, Health Effects Air Pollutants, Common Indoor CABINETS & COUNTERTOPS CARPETING & INDOOR AIR QUALITY CHINESE DRYWALL HAZARDS INDOOR AIR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT, KEY STEPS VENTILATION, WHOLE HOUSE STRATEGIES VENTILATION, EXHAUST ONLY VENTILATION, SUPPLY-ONLY VENTILATION, BALANCED VENTILATION, BALANCED HEAT COST SAVINGS Air Filtering Strategies Particles in Indoor Air - Chart GAS EXPOSURE EFFECTS Gas Toxicity Levels Gases, Quick Guide to Indoor AIR CLEANER PURIFIER TYPES Air Filter Effectiveness Radon Hazards Formaldehyde Hazards Formaldehyde Gas Hazard Reduction BIOLOGICAL POLLUTANTS BLUE vs YELLOW COMBUSTION FLAMES BLUERAY Recall BUY PRODUCTS for MOLD & ALLERGY CONTROL Urea Formaldehyde Foam Insulation UFFI URETHANE FOAM Deterioration, Outgassing Volatile Organic Compounds VOCs Pesticide Exposure Hazards Lead Exposure Hazards Asbestos Exposure Hazards Combustion Appliance Contaminants Backdrafting Appliances Fireplace & Woodstove Contaminants INDOOR AIR HAZARDS TABLE INDOOR COMBUSTION PRODUCTS & IAQ ODORS, Smells, Gases in buildings INDOOR AIR QUALITY METHODS COMPARED LEAD POISONING HAZARDS GUIDE LEED GREEN BUILDING CERTIFICATION LEED Building Designation & IAQ MILDEW in buildings ? 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This article describes steps to reduce or eliminate exposure to formaldehyde gas in air or water indoors - how to remove formaldehyde gas and formaldehyde gas emitting building products. This article includes excerpts or adaptations from Best Practices Guide to Residential Construction, by Steven Bliss, courtesy of Wiley & Sons. Also see Formaldehyde Hazards - a list of formaldehyde sources in buildings, see Air Pollutants, Common Indoor, and see ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS - INSPECT, TEST, REMEDY for our full list of environmental hazard identification and remedy related to buildings. For a discussion of urethane and polyurethane foam insulation outgassing, see URETHANE FOAM Deterioration, Outgassing. © Copyright 2012 InspectAPedia.com, Daniel Friedman, Steve Bliss, Wiley & Sons, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. Use page top links to major topics or use links at the left of each page to navigate within topics and documents at this website. Green links show where you are in a document series or at this website. As we described at Formaldehyde Hazards and as detailed in Best Practices Guide to Residential Construction: Formaldehyde is a ubiquitous volatile organic compound (VOC) that occurs in nature and is widely used in building products, finishes, and furnishings because of its desirable properties and low cost. Nearly all products made with formaldehyde outgas to some extent, but only a few contribute significantly to indoor air problems. Suggestions for Reducing Exposure to Formaldehyde Indoors
Where panel products with urea-formaldehyde resins must be used, they should be covered or coated on as many surfaces as possible. Panels covered with an impermeable facing, such a vinyl or plastic laminate, have low emissions. Another option is to coat the panels with two or more coats of a water-resistant finish, such as polyurethane, lacquer, or alkyd paint. In general, unless a finish is visibly thick and an effective vapor barrier, it probably has little effect on formaldehyde emissions. Controlling heat and humidity is also important, since hot, humid conditions significantly raise the level of formaldehyde emissions. Sensitive individuals should also launder permanent-press draperies before using and should avoid newly painted rooms for several days. Prior to use, any new furnishings or surfaces with formaldehyde-based materials should be allowed to air out for several days to several weeks in a well-ventilated space. Generally, formaldehyde levels will drop off rapidly at first and eventually level off at very low levels. Monitoring of 40 new houses by Oak Ridge National Laboratory found that, after five years, nearly all houses, including those insulated with urea-formaldehyde (UF) foam insulation, had formaldehyde levels below 0.1 ppm. -- Adapted with permission from Best Practices Guide to Residential Construction. Questions & Answers about reducing formaldehyde gas odors in buildingsQuestion: Eliminating formaldehyde using Ammonia NH4 ?My daughter purchased a used trailer that now apparently has a formaldehyde odor in it. It doesn’t bother her husband, but does irritate her nose and eyes. She ran across a homeopathic remedy to (apparently) “eliminate” the problem. It involves putting NH4 in the room. The chemistry is shown at a homeopathic remedy website in an article titled "FORMALDEHYDE and its ANTAGONISTS" . The reactions seem reasonable, but this begs the question of the effectiveness of the treatment itself. What do you think about this? Your opinion is appreciated. Thanks in advance. - Eric Reply: Best approach to indoor formaldehyde: find and remove the sources of irritating indoor chemicalsOPINION: A discussion I had some time ago with a theoretical phyisist included her observation that while, as a theoretician operating at the edge of human understanding of particle physics, she was reluctant to say that anything is impossible, including the "water memory" theory underpinning the very-dilute-is-more-effective principle of homeopathic remedies that dilute a substance with water until not a single molecule of the original substance remains in the treated water. We recognize that some people report using and being very satisfied with homeopathic remedies for a wide range of complaints, notwithstanding the scientific challenges involved. But the same physicist pointed out that for that latter homeopathic theory to hold, many other scientific observations that are widely accepted, ranging from observations of the earth circling the sun to the operation of internal combustion engines, would have to be found false. So I'm uncertain about citing a homeopathy product marketing website as a source of a "cure" for formaldehyde odors. Even if the chemistry theory of putting ammonia into indoor air to attack formaldhyde has a theoretical basis, the practical theory may be a bit thin, as we elaborate below. The procedure described in the article wants you to place the item that is a formadehyde source in a location with an open bowl of lemon-scented ammonia. There is no evidence given in the article that the concentrations of airborne ammonia in a living room populated with formaldehyde outgassing carpets, furniture, cabinetry, would be adequate to have the desired reaction without also producing a dangerous indoor level of ammonia. Still from a more practical and in our opinion more significant viewpoint, when dealing with most indoor contaminants, it makes the most sense to correct (remove) the source of the contaminant than to try to keep dealing with it by disguising or neutralizing it as it is generated in the indoor environment. Otherwise, as I see it, we permit a continuing source of noxious outgassing to continue and then keep trying to deal with the result. Watch out: The article to which you refer argues that using ammonia to "get rid of" formaldehyde invoves chemistry in which ammonia reacts with formaldehyde to produce "... a harmless imine with a byproduct of water". Ammonia too is a chemical (or gas) to which exposure can be dangerous and harmful. In your daughter's case, if moving to a different home is out of the question, then identifying the in-home products that are the primary sources of irritating formaldehyde outgassing would be in order. Often those are carpet padding and in some cases chipboard-based cabinets and furniture. It may be possible to make just a few changes that remove the primary sources of formaldehyde sufficiently that the home no longer bothers her. Also in at least some products, outgassing diminishes from new products after weeks or months. So the passage time alone, allowing product outgassing to complete (rather than exposure to ammonia) might explain the improvement in formaldehyde levels in many cases. InspectAPedia is an independent publisher of building, environmental, and forensic inspection, diagnosis, and repair information for the public - we have no business nor financial connection with any manufacturer or service provider discussed at our website. We are dedicated to making our information as accurate, complete, useful, and unbiased as possible: we very much welcome critique, questions, or content suggestions for our web articles. Questions & Answers regarding this article. Ask a Question or Search InspectAPediaHTML Comment Box is loading comments...
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