[Exposure to formaldehyde during an anatomy dissecting course]

Formaldehyde is a flammable, colorless and readily polymerized gas at ambient temperature, and is one of the major pollutants in indoor air. Medical students during their dissection course are exposed to formaldehyde, whose exposure is recently considered to be one of the causes of multiple chemical sensitivity. To understand the system that produces exposures and to plan for implementing control options, this study examined formaldehyde exposures that occurred in the gross anatomy laboratory. Formaldehyde in air was sampled by an active 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH)-silica gel cartridge, extracted with acetonitrile and analyzed with an high performance liquid chromatograph-ultraviolet(HPLC-UV)detector. The geometric mean formaldehyde concentration was 20-93 ppb in the anatomy laboratory before starting the anatomy dissecting. After beginning the dissecting, however, the highest geometric mean concentrations were 1012-1380 ppb. Significant differences were observed during the exposed period for symptoms of "unusual thirst", "burning eyes", "itchy eyes", "bad feeling", "fatigue", etc. in comparison with the non-exposed period. These results show that medical schools should take more concrete measures to reduce exposure to formaldehyde.