[Chronic pollution with environmental toxins: formaldehyde]

Formaline is a colourless, strongly odoriferous gas. It is a very important basic component in chemical industry. It has become well known as a poison in residential areas due to its appearance in chipboard panels. Formaline causes a variety of acute and chronic toxic stress symptoms. In many cases the relation of formaline exposition and symptoms is difficult to demonstrate. The main keys to diagnosis are a very careful anamnesis and the cumulated appearance of symptoms. We intend to show several possible sources of stress symptoms caused by formaline, as well as diagnostic possibilities. This includes several methods of diagnostic assessing formaline concentration in the air, and several suggestions for the reduction of formaline emission.