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Article: Formaldehyde: in spotlight's glare.(EDITOR'S PAGE)
- Article from:
- Wood & Wood Products
- Article date:
- November 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Vance Publishing Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Last August, I reported on the International Agency for Research on Cancels decision to elevate formaldehyde's status from a "probable" to a "known" human carcinogen.
To recap, IARC's ruling was based on its interpretation of several epidemiological studies of formaldehyde's health effects. The most important proved to be a study by the National Cancer Institute of 22,000 workers exposed to formaldehyde at 10 plants, compared to 3,000 chemical workers not exposed to formaldehyde. While the NCI study found lower mortality from all cancers, it also found an excess incidence of nasopharyngeal cancer, an extremely rare form of cancer that occurs where the back part ...