Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Chemistry => Topic started by: chaduthz on 18/09/2007 12:04:10
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Many products these days especially those which are being imported from China has formalin in them. But why only these days, that these products are finally noticed and why does the government in Indonesia finally took action NOW not like since a long time ago??
It's kind of funny just to finally stop using a certain type of product which we normally use and to know that it is highly formalin in it.
So my question is that, is there already another type of chemical or some substance which can replace formalin and does not give negative reactions on the body at all???
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So my question is that, is there already another type of chemical or some substance which can replace formalin and does not give negative reactions on the body at all???
As far as I know : NO.
Formalin or formaldehyde is used in a wide variety of applications. As such it is used a a preserving agent, and for this it can be replaced - at a cost.
It is also used in the production of urea-formaldehyde, phenol-formaldehyde, melamin-formaldehyde and other resins. These are used as binders in fibreboard, and many other applications, and as water resistance agents... These resins are all produced with a lower level of "free formaldehyde" than say 10 years ago.
One thing that happened in these 10 years is that legally acceptable levels of formaldehyde have been drastically lowered. I worked in a plant producing UF and MF resins, and we used to put on our protective masks as soon as we smelled formaldehyde (it has a distinctive smell), but as regulations changed the new "acceptable" limit was well below the concentration at which you could smell it, so we had to monitor the concentration with sensors, that had to be calibrated at regular intervals.
In short, formaldehyde is considered much more dangerous than it used to be, and not every country is changing its regulations at the same speed.