Concentrations of Formaldehyde in new Danish Residential Buildings in Relation to WHO Recommendations and CEN Requirements

Abstract

It is uncertain if current Danish legislation regarding emission of formaldehyde from wood-based panels could assure that concentrations of formaldehyde in the indoor air of buildings containing the material would meet the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline. This is of particular concern since the recent recognition by International Agency for Research on Cancer that formaldehyde is carcinogenic to humans. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether residents of newly built Danish residential houses could be exposed to safe levels of formaldehyde. Geometric mean concentration of formaldehyde measured in 20 residential buildings was 0.04 mg m−3. Formaldehyde concentrations in two buildings (10%) exceeded the WHO guideline value. In order to explain the relatively high concentrations, a second phase was performed. The aim was to identify the significant formaldehyde sources and to discuss the source strength in relation to field measurements and WHO guidelines. The results showed wide differences between the materials tested, but all steady-state concentrations were below the European standard requirement for class E1. These measurements formed the basis for model calculations of possible resulting concentrations in residential rooms, suggesting that indoor concentrations above the WHO maximum limit could occur. The calculations applied a worst case scenario with all surfaces covered with materials emitting the maximum permissible amount of formaldehyde show indoor concentrations as high as 0.6 mg m−3.

Near Real-Time Monitoring of Formaldehyde in a Low-Energy School Building

“…Most of the studies required passive sampling on the DNPH tubes [3,4,[40][41][42] over a period of several days to a week, except Jarnstrom et al (2006) [43], who used active sampling using a 0.005 M sulfuric solution at 2-4 L/min, followed by a derivatization with acetyl-acetone and quantification by a spectrometric method. Our study appears to be the first one to report continuous formaldehyde monitoring in a low-energy building.…”

“…The airborne formaldehyde mean concentrations were determined in the newly finished buildings (19 µg m −3 ) after 6 months (21 µg m −3 ) and 12 months (26 µg m −3 ), highlighting an increasing trend once the building was occupied. In Denmark, Kolarik et al (2012) [41] measured the formaldehyde concentrations in 20 new Danish residential buildings with a geometric mean value of 40 µg m −3 . They reported that formaldehyde levels exceeded the WHO guideline value of 100 µg m −3 in two buildings.…”

Integrated Management of Residential Indoor Air Quality: A Call for Stakeholders in a Changing Climate

“…Several countries have adopted legislation regarding various aspects of building construction and IAQ issues. France [ 10 ], China [ 11 ], Denmark [ 12 ], South Korea [ 13 , 14 ], Japan [ 15 ], and Canada [ 16 , 17 ] have adopted regulations affecting IAQ directly or indirectly. For instance, since 2013, France requires all of the construction materials and interior decoration products sold in France to be labelled with a standardized label presenting information on the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC) (e.g., formaldehyde) in order to provide clear and complete information about the products that consumers buy and install in their buildings [ 10 ].…”

Seasonal variations and the influence of ventilation rates on IAQ: A case study of five low-energy London apartments

“…Large-scale studies (>100 homes) have measured ranges of indoor and outdoor pollutants across representative samples of national housing stocks. [1][2][3] Typically these studies have used sampling methods that report a single, mean value across the measurement period (typically a single measurement or an aggregated value taken over a few days to weeks) and may involve either single pollutants 4,5 or a wide range of targeted pollutants. 1,3,6,7 Statistical analysis of such large-scale measurements can then help to determine the influence of building and occupant characteristics.…”