EPA Releases Meeting Minutes and Final Report from Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals Formaldehyde Review
Released August 2, 2024
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the meeting minutes and final report from the May 20-23, 2024, Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) virtual public meeting regarding the 2024 Draft Risk Evaluation for Formaldehyde.
EPA released its draft risk evaluation for formaldehyde under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in March 2024. In the draft risk evaluation, EPA preliminarily found that formaldehyde poses unreasonable risk to human health.
The meeting minutes and final report are available in docket EPA-HQ-OPPT-2023-0613 on regulations.gov and through the SACC webpage for the formaldehyde meeting. EPA is in the process of reviewing feedback from the meeting and will use this feedback, along with feedback received from the public, to inform the final risk evaluation.
The SACC serves as a scientific peer review mechanism of EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. It provides independent scientific advice and recommendations to EPA on the scientific basis for risk assessments, methodologies and pollution prevention measures and approaches for chemicals regulated under TSCA.
For additional information, contact the Designated Federal Official, Tamue Gibson at [email protected].
Information on EPA’s Draft Risk Evaluation for Formaldehyde
Formaldehyde is found nearly everywhere. People and animals produce and release formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is produced when organic material including leaves, plants, and woodchips decay. Formaldehyde is also produced and released into the air when things burn, such as when cars emit exhaust, when furnaces and stoves operate, and through forest fires, burning candles, and smoking. Finally, formaldehyde is used to make many products including composite wood products and other building materials, plastics, pesticides, paints, adhesives, and sealants. Over time, formaldehyde may be released from these products and people may inhale it.
Due to its varied sources, people are routinely exposed to formaldehyde in indoor and outdoor environments, often from more than one source at a time. High levels of exposures to formaldehyde can cause health problems when inhaled and if it is absorbed into the skin. Inhaling high levels of formaldehyde for a short period of time can cause sensory irritation such as eye irritation. Inhaling formaldehyde for longer periods of time can damage the lungs and increase asthma and allergy-related conditions, sensory irritation, reproductive toxicity, and cancer. Skin contact with products containing formaldehyde can also cause allergic reactions.
In the draft risk evaluation, EPA evaluated the risks that arise from ways in which people may be exposed to formaldehyde from the production and use of products that are subject to TSCA - as opposed to exposures from those products that are excluded from TSCA (such as pesticides and exposures from sources of formaldehyde that are biogenic such as breathing and the decomposition of leaves) and exposures from other sources of formaldehyde.
This draft risk evaluation attempts to understand whether the risks from those uses contribute to the unreasonable risk presented by formaldehyde. EPA assessed exposure for 62 TSCA conditions of use of formaldehyde, using many scenarios, considering multiple human life stages (e.g., childhood, adulthood) and how people might be exposed outdoors in the open air, in their homes or other buildings, at workplaces that use formaldehyde, and in communities located close to industrial sources of formaldehyde.
In evaluating these exposures, EPA faces a unique challenge: the formaldehyde released from commercial activities and products is mixed in with the naturally formed formaldehyde. It is often difficult to estimate how much of the formaldehyde a person is exposed to comes from a given source at any given time. Similarly, EPA’s finding of unreasonable risk does not mean that a single exposure to formaldehyde will result in adverse health effects.
EPA sought external peer review from the SACC on EPA’s data analyses and methodologies relevant to human health and ecological hazard. These included (but were not limited to) the value used to evaluate dermal exposures, acute and chronic inhalation exposures, and exposure analyses that had not been previously peer reviewed.