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A long-awaited report from the Environmental Protection Agency has found that formaldehyde poses an unreasonable risk to human health. But the report released Thursday downplays the threat the chemicals pose to people living near factories that release large amounts of carcinogens into the air.
This health risk assessment shows that formaldehyde, one of the most widely used chemicals commercially, causes more cancers than any other chemical in the air, and is associated with asthma, miscarriages and fertility problems. The announcement comes weeks after a ProPublica investigation found that
An analysis of EPA’s own data shows that in every U.S. census block, the risk of cancer from lifetime exposure to formaldehyde in outdoor air is higher than the goals the EPA has set for air pollutants. This has been shown. Indoors, the risk is even greater because formaldehyde can leach out from furniture and other products long after it enters the home.
In its report, EPA evaluated 63 situations in which consumers and workers encounter formaldehyde and found that 58 of those situations contributed to an unreasonable health risk from this chemical. The EPA has mandated that the designation of this chemical be relaxed. According to the report, products that could emit dangerous levels of formaldehyde in such a scenario include car care products such as car wax, as well as craft supplies, inks and toners, photographic supplies and fabrics, building materials, and textile products. , leather products, etc.
A memo accompanying EPA’s report states that workers are most exposed to the chemical, but EPA’s risk assessment does not recommend in an earlier draft to protect workers from formaldehyde. A weaker standard was adopted than the previous standard. The move was condemned by some environmentalists, some of whom said it would affect hundreds of thousands of people whose jobs require contact with chemicals.
By law, EPA must begin the next step in regulation: drafting regulations to mitigate the identified risks. But even before the agency released its report, House Republicans were calling on the administration to invalidate it. And chemical industry groups immediately attacked the report as flawed, accusing the EPA of “pursuing an unaccountable lame-duck operation that threatens the U.S. economy and key sectors that support health, safety, and national security.” .
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How and whether to limit formaldehyde risks is sure to be one of the EPA’s first tests under the second Trump administration. This relatively cheap chemical is ubiquitous and used in everything from preserving corpses to making plastics and semiconductors. President-elect Donald Trump reiterated his support for clean air on the campaign trail. But he has also vowed to roll back regulations he views as anti-business, and the industry has been rallying around formaldehyde for decades.
When President Trump first took office in 2017, the agency was preparing to issue a report on the chemical’s toxicity. However, one of the EPA appointees given a high-ranking role in the agency’s Office of Research and Development was a chemical engineer who worked as an employee of Koch Industries to circumvent formaldehyde regulations. The company’s subsidiary manufactured formaldehyde. Many products emit it. The report was not released until August 2024, long after President Trump’s appointees left the agency.
According to a ProPublica analysis of the EPA’s 2020 AirToxScreen data, approximately 320 million people live in regions of the United States where the lifetime cancer risk from outdoor formaldehyde exposure is 10 times higher than the agency’s ideal value. There is. ProPublica has released a search tool to help everyone in the country understand the risks of formaldehyde outdoors.
Still, in its final assessment, the EPA ruled that these health risks are not unreasonable, following a draft the agency released in March. At the time, the EPA compared levels in outdoor air to the highest concentrations measured by monitors over a six-year period to determine whether formaldehyde posed an unreasonable risk of harm. ProPublica’s investigation found that the measurements the draft report used as a reference point were a fluke and did not meet the quality control standards of the local air quality monitoring agency that registered it.
The final version released this week didn’t have that explanation. Instead, it offered some new rationale, such as that some formaldehyde breaks down in the air and that its levels change throughout a person’s life, but ultimately reached the same conclusion as the draft. reached. In other words, formaldehyde in outdoor air was not a threat to be concerned about. It has been dealt with.
The decision leaves people living near the plant, known as the fence line area, with little hope of protection, said Catherine O’Brien, a senior attorney at Earthjustice who has been closely following the EPA’s efforts to regulate formaldehyde.
O’Brien said, “Despite calculating that the cancer risks for people in their homes and in the fence line community are very high, the EPA completely ignores those risks and does not address those risks.” “We have prepared the ground where there are no regulations for this.” “It’s very unfortunate and very difficult to understand.”
The final version had weaker standards to protect workers than a draft published in March, which was heavily criticized by industry. The acceptable level of workplace formaldehyde exposure set in the final version of the assessment was significantly higher than the level in an earlier draft of the report.
Maria Doerr, senior director of chemicals policy at the Environmental Defense Fund, expressed concern about the decision. “This is a less protective standard and puts workers at risk,” said Doerr, a chemist who worked at the EPA for 30 years. He pointed out that the report’s figures show that an estimated 450,000 workers could become more susceptible to formaldehyde as a result.
Formaldehyde causes more cancers than any other toxic air pollutant. Little is being done to curb the risks.
Check the formaldehyde cancer risk in your neighborhood
The EPA press office did not immediately respond to questions about changes to outdoor air decisions or values set to protect workers.
It is unclear which parts of the new report will be allowed to survive.
Last month, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) called on the incoming administration to make reviewing the Biden EPA’s formaldehyde efforts a “top priority in 2025.” In a letter to Lee Zeldin, President Trump’s nominee to run the agency, Sessions wrote that this week’s report shows that “unaccountable EPA officials are tying the new administration’s hands and threatening the economy.” “It is based on unscientific data used to inhibit growth.” (This letter was first reported by InsideEPA.)
Sessions, co-chair of the new Achieving Superior Government Caucus and a staunch ally of Trump, has repealed the Environmental Protection Agency’s formaldehyde assessment and announced a “wide-ranging Biden policy on chemicals.” ” recommended that the policy be changed.
