F for Formaldehyde Facts

I've never been into chemistry, but since I've been diagnosed with a formaldehyde allergy I've been hoovering up facts about formaldehyde. Here's my top ten pieces of trivia:

1. It's a colourless, gas with a strong pungent odour.

2. Formaldehyde was first commercially used in embalming fluid and as a preservative for laboratory specimens. More recently Damian Hirst has used formaldehyde with stunning effect to create artwork with preserved animals.

3. The most common sources today are vehicle exhausts and industrial emissions. It's also found in cigarette smoke.

4. It's one of the most widely used organic compounds - in products from plywood and paint to paper products and mouthwash - which is why avoiding it is so difficult.

5. Animal waste is among the most common source of formaldehyde; even humans produce a small amount in their bodies during metabolism but it's removed from the body before it accumulates in the body.

6. Formaldehyde also occurs naturally in certain foods such as coffee (especially instant coffee), dried bean curd, cod fish, caviar, maple syrup and smoked ham. It's particularly high in shiitake mushrooms and peking duck. I can't find any information on whether people who are allergic to formaldehyde should avoid any of these.

7. Formaldehyde is on of the twenty allergens tested on the standard Patch Test (which hospitals use to test people for contact allergies).

8. From large-scale studies, it appears that women are affected 1.2 – 1.5 times more frequently by formaldehyde allergy than men.

9. The frequency of contact allergy to formaldehyde is consistently higher in the USA than in Europe. In Europe, 2 – 3% of patients suspected of contact dermatitis have positive patch test reactions, compared to 8–9% in the USA.

10. Formaldehyde allergy can cause allergic contact dermatitis. A reaction usually doesn't appears until a day or two after exposure to the allergen - no wonder I found it impossible to self-diagnose the cause of my allergy! After the allergen has been removed it can take weeks for the reaction to completely stop. I was fascinated by the fact that, after I had my patch testing, the spot where the formaldehyde had been remained raised and red for well over two weeks after the patch had been removed.

Picture credit: "London Cab" by Mantas Ruzveltas/ Picture credit: "Shiitake Mushroom" by Jomphong

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