EPA to Study Formaldehyde

In response to a petition from 25 organizations, led by the Sierra Club, and about 5,000 individuals, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that it plans to give “advance notice of proposed rulemaking” on formaldehyde in composite wood products in fall 2008. EPA denied the petition’s request to adopt the California Air Resources Board regulations pertaining to hardwood plywood, medium-density fiberboard, and particleboard (see

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Vol. 16, No. 6). The agency claimed there was insufficient data to assess the risk posed by formaldehyde or to identify the least burdensome means of protecting against that risk. Instead, EPA said it would “initiate a proceeding to investigate whether and what type of regulatory or other action might be appropriate.” Becky Gillette, who heads the Sierra Club formaldehyde campaign, said that the petition was prompted by widespread complaints of nose, eye, and throat irritation among residents of emergency housing trailers used after Hurricane Katrina. No federal standard for exposure to formaldehyde currently exists, and in 2004, EPA abandoned its assessment of the chemical after seven years of research. Given that EPA has 70 ongoing chemical assessments, considers half the 480 chemicals in its IRIS database in need of review, and completed only four assessments in fiscal years 2006–2007, creating a rule to limit formaldehyde exposure could take many years. Gillette said Congress needs to set a deadline for EPA to act, and Senator Barbara Boxer has said that if the EPA assessment process doesn’t improve, Congress will start banning chemicals itself.