Formaldehyde is everywhere, but poses dangers to our health. Here’s what to know

John Yang:

Many of us know formaldehyde as that clear chemical with the powerful smell that permeates high school bio labs. It's found just about everywhere, including in a lot of things that are probably in your homes and offices right now, composite lumber, plastics, paints and glues. And this past week, an Environmental Protection Agency evaluation said it poses an unreasonable risk to human health. Last month, a ProPublica investigation concluded that it causes far more cancer than any other airborne pollutant. And critics say not enough is being done to address the risk.

Sharon Lerner, who covers health and the environment for ProPublica, was the lead reporter on their investigation. Sharon, we mentioned some of the places where it's found. How pervasive is formaldehyde in everyone's everyday life?

Sharon Lerner, ProPublica:

It's incredibly pervasive. Formaldehyde is essentially ubiquitous, so indoors the concentration is particularly high because lots of products emit it, like furniture, flooring, sometimes even clothing. But it's also outdoors and pretty much everywhere outdoors.

John Yang:

And how much more dangerous is formaldehyde than other airborne pollutants?

Sharon Lerner:

Yeah, so the EPA analyzes toxic air pollutants and estimate the cancer risk for each one of them. Ideally, they're supposed to limit the exposure to these chemicals so that they cause no more than one case of cancer in every million people exposed over a lifetime. And for most of the dozens of toxic air pollutants they look at, that is the case.

Formaldehyde causes more cancer than any of them by far. So According to the EPA's numbers, it's more than 20 cancers per million people. But what we found in our investigation and what the EPA acknowledged to us is that number is an underestimate, and it's a vast one because the actual number, using their best estimate, is closer to 77 cases of cancer in every million people.

John Yang:

You say the EPA acknowledges they underestimate the danger. Are they doing enough to address the danger, even at the level they say it is? And what more can they do?

Sharon Lerner:

They could do more, for sure, but what they decide in this report is really important to the limits they end up putting on the chemical. And so to enact limits, they need to find unreasonable risk. And despite all the formaldehyde in outdoor air that we were just talking about, they found no unreasonable risk. And there are a number of situations where they didn't find unreasonable risk, even though their numbers seem to point to unreasonable risk. So those are the concerns that were pointing at. But we'll have to see what happens next now that they've issued this report.

John Yang:

You mentioned formaldehyde outdoors. The American Chemistry Council, the trade group, responded to your story by pointing out that it ignored the fact that formaldehyde dissipates quickly in sunlight. And EPA data fully acknowledges that nearly all formaldehyde in the outdoor air come from natural biogenic sources and fires, primarily wildfires. What do you say to that?

Sharon Lerner:

In terms of the sources of formaldehyde, there are biogenic sources, and we talk about that in the article. And that means sources that come from nature. Those sources are greatly amplified, we learned, by industrial pollution and industrial pollution. Pollution from manufacturing plants and all sorts of industry, from car exhaust, that is measured by the EPA. We're not making up the EPA's numbers. We just use the EPA data, which I don't think the ACC would say is incorrect. So our reporting is correct.

John Yang:

Is there any indication that the new Trump administration will approach regulation of formaldehyde any differently than it's being dealt with now?

Sharon Lerner:

Yeah, there is. I mean, we know from the first Trump administration, when they rolled back many, many environmental regulations and rules, that they tend to take a more industry, or they did last time, a more industry friendly stance. And everything he said on the campaign trail makes us think that, you know, he'll continue to do this. Also, Pete Sessions in Congress, a staunch ally of Trump, recently wrote a letter to the EPA saying that he wants to focus on revisiting what the Biden administration did on formaldehyde as a top priority for 2025. So we know that in Trump's circle that people are already focused on how to undo this.

John Yang:

Now, I know you and your colleagues at ProPublica have also published stories about telling people how they can limit their exposure to formaldehyde. What are some of the suggestions or some of the things people can do?

Sharon Lerner:

Well, you want to look at the list of ingredients when there are some on your products. Also, sometimes products will have labels about whether they do or do not contain formaldehyde. But the best way, when you get, for instance, new products like pieces of furniture, a lot of them emit lots of formaldehyde in the first days and weeks that you own them. So you might want to off gas them if you have a garage, in a garage or outdoors. And the other thing is to actually keep your windows open when you can.

John Yang:

Sharon Lerner of ProPublica, thank you very much.

Sharon Lerner:

Thank you for having me. Really appreciate it.