[Experimental value of formaldehyde exposure to preserve anatomical findings]

Formaldehyde, already classified as potentially carcinogen and recently as "human carcinogen" by IARC, is generally used for fixing and preserving anatomical findings. This reason causes a problem of professional exposure for the operators who use the formaldehyde for this purpose. In this work we present the results of the periodical monitoring which is done for the determination of the exposure at formaldehyde in operating theatres and surgeries, where the operator fill the special container with the anatomical findings andformaldehyde for following tests. The measurements have been done using an instrument that continuously measure the concentration of formaldehyde, based on the infrared spectrometry, in 54 rooms which are operating theatres or surgeries in 9 public hospitals in Campania (Italy). The results show that the long-term exposure limits are not exceeded and that the average of the highest values of concentration obtained during its use was 0.15 +/- 0.04 ppm, that is below the limits. It is important to point out that such a limit was never exceeded during every single measurement. Finally, analyzing statistically the data, we can infer that the probability of exceeding the short-term limit is less than 0.1%, when formaldehyde is used for the purposes mentioned above.