[In a world where air pollution is a significant threat to public health, formaldehyde poses a unique risk. According to a new analysis by ProPublica, formaldehyde exposure is now a certainty for everyone in the United States, regardless of where they live. Furthermore, it poses the greatest risk in the place people feel safest: their homes.
Formaldehyde is a chemical that is widely used in various industries, including embalming, furniture manufacturing, and plastics. While the government has known about its toxicity for decades, regulations have been consistently thwarted by companies that rely on it. The Biden administration has recently made progress, but the EPA has undervalued the dangers posed by formaldehyde, a ProPublica investigation has found.
The agency is poised to underestimate the risk of myeloid leukemia, a potentially fatal blood cancer that affects an estimated 29,000 people in the US each year. EPA scientists have concluded that the risk is too uncertain to include, despite a 2018 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report agreeing with the decision. Four former government scientists with expertise in statistical analysis have disputed this conclusion, saying the risk is even greater than the agency’s estimate.
EPA scientist Jennifer Jinot laments that the agency “chickened out,” saying, “it’s kind of heartbreaking.” The agency has also downplayed the risks of formaldehyde in various sectors, including health effects such as asthma, respiratory diseases, and reproductive harm like miscarriages and fertility problems.
The EPA’s recent draft report expects to finalize this month, but, as history has shown, even limited efforts to address formaldehyde pollution could be crushed after Donald Trump’s inauguration. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the EPA has been outgunned by the chemical industry, which has invested heavily in creating rosier narratives about their products. During the Trump administration, the EPA suffered from lack of funding, staff departures, and reduced access to information, making it even more challenging to tackle the issue.
As the government continues to struggle to regulate formaldehyde, researchers have analyzed air pollution data from 5.8 million US census blocks and conducted testing in various environments, as well as interviewing more than 50 experts and reviewing thousands of pages of scientific studies and EPA records. The findings suggest that the public health risks from formaldehyde are greater and more widespread than widely understood, and any hope of addressing these issues may be lost, at least in the foreseeable future.
The EPA has been slow to respond to formaldehyde, and its attempts to update regulations have been met with resistance from the chemical industry. Regulatory rules put the onus on the government to prove the harms caused by a chemical, rather than on the industry to prove their products are safe. The EPA has faced staff shortages, lack of funding, and reduced access to information, making it even more difficult to address the issue.
The Biden administration’s efforts to address formaldehyde pollution are likely to be met with similar resistance, as has been the case with past attempts. With the EPA’s struggle to regulate formaldehyde, the public may be left to bear the consequences of this widespread chemical threat.
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