A recommended occupational exposure limit for formaldehyde based on irritation

In recent years, several regulatory agencies and professional societies have recommended an occupational exposure limit (OEL) for formaldehyde. This article presents the findings of a panel of experts, the Industrial Health Foundation panel, who were charged to identify an OEL that would prevent irritation. To accomplish this task, they critiqued approximately 150 scientific articles. Unlike many other chemicals, a large amount of data is available upon which to base a concentration-response relationship for human irritation. A mathematical model developed by Kane et al. (1979) for predicting safe levels of exposure to irritants based on animal data was also evaluated. The panel concluded that for most persons, eye irritation clearly due to formaldehyde does not occur until at least 1.0 ppm. Information from controlled studies involving volunteers indicated that moderate to severe eye, nose, and throat irritation does not occur for most persons until airborne concentrations exceed 2.0-3.0 ppm. The data indicated that below 1.0 ppm, if irritation occurs in some persons, the effects rapidly subside due to "accommodation." Based on the weight of evidence from published studies, the panel found that persons exposed to 0.3 ppm for 4-6 h in chamber studies generally reported eye irritation at a rate no different than that observed when persons were exposed to clean air. It was noted that at a concentration of 0.5 ppm (8-h TWA) eye irritation was not observed in the majority of workers (about 80%). Consequently, the panel recommended an OEL of 0.3 ppm as an 8-h time-weighted average (TWA) with a ceiling value (CV) of 1.0 ppm (a concentration not to be exceeded) to avoid irritation. The panel believes that the ACGIH TLV of 0.3 ppm as a ceiling value was unnecessarily restrictive and that this value may have been based on the TLV Committee's interpretation of the significance of studies involving self-reported responses at concentrations less than 0.5 ppm. The panel concluded that any occupational or environmental guideline for formaldehyde should be based primarily on controlled studies in humans, since nearly all other studies are compromised by the presence of other contaminants. The panel also concluded that if concentrations of formaldehyde are kept below 0.1 ppm in the indoor environment (where exposures might occur 24 h/d) this should prevent irritation in virtually all persons. The panel could not identify a group of persons who were hypersensitive, nor was there evidence that anyone could be sensitized (develop an allergy) following inhalation exposure to formaldehyde. The panel concluded that there was sufficient evidence to show that persons with asthma respond no differently than healthy individuals following exposure to concentrations up to 3.0 ppm. Although cancer risk was not a topic that received exhaustive evaluation, the panel agreed with other scientific groups who have concluded that the cancer risk of formaldehyde is negligible at airborne concentrations that do not produce chronic irritation.