M for My formaldehyde allergy

Until this week I thought formaldehyde was just what Damian Hirst used to pickle dead animals before he put them in art galleries. I took my one-year-old to see an exhibition of his at the Tate Modern last year, and it was rather fun: dissected cows and sheep embalmed in great glass cases, fascinating and rather beautiful.

I didn't realise then that I was allergic to formaldehyde. And that it's a chemical that seems to be in everything. Earlier this month, I went for patch testing at a central London hospital to find the cause of my chronic eczema and the results came back positive for formaldehyde. At first I was a bit non-plussed. I was expecting it to be nickel. Or the fragrances in my cosmetics. Formaldehyde is a chemical I knew very little about.

But as I was given my one-page fact sheet which said, 'you have a contact allergy to formaldehyde' and listed out the things which may contain formaldehyde, I realised that the only way to avoid it would be to move to a tropical island and sleep in a hammock. And not light a fire (they give off formaldehyde).

Formaldehyde is put in some (but not all) toilet tissues, cosmetics, cleaning products, mattresses, sofas, treated leather, plywood, dry cleaning (I could go on) and is emitted through tobacco smoke, wood smoke, and exhaust fumes among others. To avoid the car fumes I could move out of the big city, and into the country, except I get bad hay fever – and that’s another story.


Before I had fully read the one-pager I was breezily discharged to find my own way.

To be honest, my over-riding emotion was one of relief, almost elation, to have found a cause of my eczema. Having spent years not knowing why my eczema was so bad and getting worse, now at least I could do something to stop it. I felt a huge weight had been lifted from me.

However, I soon realised it wouldn't be that simple. If you're allergic to nuts you make it your business to avoid them - I've done that my entire life, and by checking packaging and choosing restaurants carefully, with practice I have found that while I need to be ever-vigilant it's relatively straightforward. Formaldehyde on the other hand doesn't seem to be so easy to identify. Turns out it's in a staggering number of things, as it's a colourless chemical it's hard to detect, and as it's often used as a preservative rather than an ingredient there's no onus for manufacturers to list it on the side of products.

There are a number of formaldehde-releasers which slowly release formaldehyde over time. I was patch tested for these too and they came up negative. However, some material I've read online says it's not known whether people who are allergic to formaldehyde should also avoid these. These chemicals are in a lot of beauty products so avoiding them all can be a challenge. But I'm so keen to eliminate my eczema that I'm willing to give it a go just in case.

This is the start of my formaldehyde-free journey!

Posted with Blogsy