That New House Could Kill

We Are Surrounded by
Deadly Formaldehyde

When I served as a volunteer fire fighter a few years back, I learned that entering a burning building is much more dangerous than the professionals first make it appear.

While fighting hot flames and breathing wood smoke is severe enough, we were aware that modern buildings contain a hidden danger that few people consider. Burning plastic, particle board, manufactured carpet fabrics and other chemically made household items emit deadly toxic fumes. Inhaling this kind of smoke isn't something anybody should be doing. Modern fire departments now are equipped with special masks and breathing devices that allow fire fighters to enter burning buildings and extinguish fires without this one added threat.

Fire brings out a speeded-up version of a deadly event going on in nearly all modern homes and office buildings today. While they aren't burning, these same chemically manufactured building materials are still leaching toxic fumes into the rooms. The only difference is that the damage to our lungs and our bodies is going on at a much slower pace than it would if the building were on fire.

As the world population continues to explode, the demand for wood and other building products has increased so fast there is a critical shortage of natural resources. Industry, always quick to see a profit in any situation, invented alternative building materials that resemble the wood used in older homes. And if they can't copy wood, they use ultra-thin strips of a piece of real wood, called veneer, to decorate the surface of a panel of plywood or particle board. And, as Shakespeare once put it, there lies the rub. There is a common and deadly ingredient used in the manufacture of carpeting, particle board, plywood, wall paneling, trim, two-by-fours, ceiling tile and even the paint on the walls. They all contain formaldehyde.

Most people know that formaldehyde is embalming fluid. It also is used to preserve body parts by hospitals and pathologists.

In addition to its preservation properties, formaldehyde is found to be a powerful and inexpensive resin and bonding agent for glue. This is unfortunate, because industry now uses it extensively in the manufacture of all the artificial wood products used in building a modern house.

A few years ago I interviewed the manager of a large wood products manufacturing facility on the Apache Indian reservation in Arizona. He was proud to show me a new method of manufacturing "perfect" two-by-fours out of wood chips. Using a special glue, the plant was turning large piles of sawdust, formerly considered waste, into solid wood products. He pointed out that the new two-by-fours, two-by-sixes, and planks would not warp, were perfectly straight, and were actually stronger than a conventional wooden board of the same size. He said his factory was consequently able to make a better product at a lower cost, which to him was good business. I don't think he ever thought about the danger lurking in the formaldehyde used in the glue that made his wonderful new product.

During my research for this story, I was astounded to learn that formaldehyde is found virtually everywhere. It is a combustion product found in cigarette and wood smoke, natural gas, kerosene, and the exhaust from automobiles, incinerators and power plants.

You can find formaldehyde in urea-foam insulation, plywood, carpeting, paper products, cosmetics, deodorants, shampoos, fabric dyes and permanent press clothes, inks and disinfectants. It is even used in air and carpet deodorizers.

There are especially high concentrations of formaldehyde in the walls, floors and furnishings in our homes. Wherever you find pressed board, particle board or plywood, you will find formaldehyde. And if you think it isn't present in your home, look closely at the doors. If you find that the outer finish is a thin veneer, be assured it is covering a large block of pressed or particle board. That new end table in your living room may also be filled with particle board. So are the kitchen cupboards, wood paneling on the walls, and the studs holding the wall in place. Your roof is probably made of plywood. All of it held together with glue made from formaldehyde.

So what is the problem with formaldehyde?

It is a deadly toxin, a known carcinogen, that leaches in the form of a gas. It seeps silently from the walls, furniture, doors, clothes, curtains and upholstery. It constantly fills the rooms of your home with thin vapors of poison that in time, can kill you. In the meantime, it makes you sick.

When breathed into our lungs formaldehyde causes respiratory problems and eventually cancer of the upper respiratory tract and lungs. It is linked to asthma and other lung disorders. It causes rashes and skin disorders among some people who come in physical contact with it.

Exposure to formaldehyde is known to increase sensitivity to other irritants and chemicals, creating allergies that did not exist prior to exposure. For some people, exposure to formaldehyde creates a permanent impairment to their health.

Symptoms of low-level exposure to formaldehyde include runny nose, sore throat, cough, dermatitis, sleeping disorders, headache, fatigue, breathing difficulties, sinus irritation, chest pain, nausea, bronchitis and decreased lung capacity. Acute exposure can cause abdominal pain, anxiety, coma, convulsions, diarrhea, bronchitis, phenomena and pulmonary edema.

Formaldehyde breaks down in the body to become carbon monoxide. The first symptom of carbon monoxide poisoning is a severe headache, followed by death. Carbon monoxide is the same stuff that comes out of the tail pipe of your car as you drive down the road. Everybody knows that stuff is deadly.

With so much formaldehyde used in the building materials going into newly constructed houses and office buildings, it should be no surprise that the incidence of "sick houses," or buildings where people cannot live without being sick, is on the increase.