U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the draft risk evaluation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for formaldehyde for public comment and peer review.
EPA preliminarily finds that formaldehyde poses unreasonable risk to human health. EPA notes that formaldehyde is used to make many products including composite wood products and other building materials, plastics, pesticides, paints, adhesives, and sealants.
In response, the American Chemistry Council stated that "EPA’s suggested workplace limits are unworkable and ignore practices that are already in place to protect workers" and that the new limits "are 30 times below the recently updated European Union occupational limits of 300 parts per billion, lower than levels that can be detected, and below levels measured in ambient urban air and U.S. residences."
EPA is accepting public comments for 60 days as they rush to finalize the risk evaluation by the end of 2024. Decorative Hardwoods Association assumes that EPA's new formaldehyde risk evaluation would lead to draconian regulations.
