The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has established a number of exposure levels related to specific solids, liquids, and gases. Among these is the level of “acute exposure” at which formaldehyde becomes a health hazard. Noble effort on the part of the agency to protect us, isn’t it? Great news for people living in the arid lands north of the Himalayas. Bad news for the people living south of the Himalayas. Seems that the air over India is one of formaldehyde’s zones of abundance.*
CH2O isn’t, for us, a pleasant substance. Just walk past a biology lab when students are preserving some organism, and you’ll probably say, “I don’t know how they can stand the smell.” But obnoxious formaldehyde is a rather ubiquitous chemical. It’s even found in outer space, and some researchers argue that it played a key role in your existence. That is, formaldehyde was part of a string of reactions that led to the formation of life.** Some even argue that organic carbon made it through Earth’s fiery beginning with the help of formaldehyde, a high-heat resistant chemical. Others say that CH2O played a key role in the citric acid cycle as life evolved.***
Anyhow, formaldehyde was part of your origin, and since it is a good preservative, it will most likely play a part in your personal ending (even if you decide to be cremated). What’s that have to do with people living south of the Himalayas? Well, it seems that satellite data indicate a high level of formaldehyde in the skies over India, where levels of the chemical reach 5 to 6 parts per billion.
What are the sources of formaldehyde? Burning wood is one source. That includes burning wood in funeral pyres. In countries around the planet formaldehyde also outgases from composite wood products like plywood, building materials and insulation, glues, permanent press fabrics, paints and coatings, lacquers, cosmetics, dishwashing liquids, fabric softeners, both fertilizers and pesticides, and even preservatives used in some medicines. Oh! Yes. Don’t forget cigarette smoke, and if you’re into marijuana, “wet,” “fry,” and “illy”—blunts soaked in embalming fluid—also have formaldehyde.
Interesting, isn’t it? Stuff that probably played a key role in the formation of life is now a substance that we monitor because of its potential harmful effects, such as irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat. It also potentially causes impaired coordination, tissue destruction, and some types of cancer. Formaldehyde: Couldn’t have life without it; can’t live with it; won’t eliminate it because it serves many useful purposes.
You might have noticed that there are social analogs to formaldehyde, such as relationships that begin well for one reason and end badly for the same reason. Criminal relationships, for example. Marriages based primarily on lust, greed, or addiction. In such relationships, the partners either ignore or accept the toxicity that initially joins them because the relationship is “useful” or even “personally enhancing” in some way.
But life evolves. And relationships evolve, also. Just like that chemical that was once useful but is now toxic, the roles that “emotional chemicals” play in building a relationship can change. Crime eventually generates distrust and disloyalty. Lust fades to boredom. Greed makes material wealth an overriding goal. And addiction isolates. It’s almost as though all relationships should come with a list of counterindications and side effects and acute exposure guidelines. Let’s call it the Formaldehyde Effect.
Of course, way back when life was gaining a foothold on the planet, there was no consciousness that recognized the long-term dangers of formaldehyde. No, formaldehyde was available, and it did the job of getting life off to a good start on a desolate and forbidding planet. An abiotic chemistry involving CH2O helped to form organic molecules, led to the formation of prokaryotic life and to eukaryotic life like you. Those initial life-forms could never have foreseen the later negative effects of formaldehyde on what it helped to form.
If formaldehyde is present in a substance, ignoring it won’t make that substance safer. If a toxic characteristic binds people in a relationship, ignoring it won’t make the relationship last. Formaldehyde “outgases” from composites. Everyone needs a chemistry lesson before entering a relationship with underlying toxicity, even if that toxic element is the reason the relationship began. Here’s a new topic to add to high school chemistry: Acute Exposure Guidelines. And when the teacher gives the lesson, he or she should have open bottles of formaldehyde in the lab to aid in the instruction.
*Amos, Jonathan. “Why does India’s air look different from space?” BBC News, 22 June 2018, online at https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44550091?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cg41ylwvwmxt/european-space-agency&link_location=live-reporting-story
**Than, Ker. Space “Poison Helped Start Life on Earth? Formaldehyde on asteroids may have delivered planet’s carbon.” National Geographic News, April 6, 2011, online at https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/04/110406-poison-life-earth-formaldehyde-carbon-carnegie-space-science/
***Numerous studies and many diagrams online
CH2O isn’t, for us, a pleasant substance. Just walk past a biology lab when students are preserving some organism, and you’ll probably say, “I don’t know how they can stand the smell.” But obnoxious formaldehyde is a rather ubiquitous chemical. It’s even found in outer space, and some researchers argue that it played a key role in your existence. That is, formaldehyde was part of a string of reactions that led to the formation of life.** Some even argue that organic carbon made it through Earth’s fiery beginning with the help of formaldehyde, a high-heat resistant chemical. Others say that CH2O played a key role in the citric acid cycle as life evolved.***
Anyhow, formaldehyde was part of your origin, and since it is a good preservative, it will most likely play a part in your personal ending (even if you decide to be cremated). What’s that have to do with people living south of the Himalayas? Well, it seems that satellite data indicate a high level of formaldehyde in the skies over India, where levels of the chemical reach 5 to 6 parts per billion.
What are the sources of formaldehyde? Burning wood is one source. That includes burning wood in funeral pyres. In countries around the planet formaldehyde also outgases from composite wood products like plywood, building materials and insulation, glues, permanent press fabrics, paints and coatings, lacquers, cosmetics, dishwashing liquids, fabric softeners, both fertilizers and pesticides, and even preservatives used in some medicines. Oh! Yes. Don’t forget cigarette smoke, and if you’re into marijuana, “wet,” “fry,” and “illy”—blunts soaked in embalming fluid—also have formaldehyde.
Interesting, isn’t it? Stuff that probably played a key role in the formation of life is now a substance that we monitor because of its potential harmful effects, such as irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat. It also potentially causes impaired coordination, tissue destruction, and some types of cancer. Formaldehyde: Couldn’t have life without it; can’t live with it; won’t eliminate it because it serves many useful purposes.
You might have noticed that there are social analogs to formaldehyde, such as relationships that begin well for one reason and end badly for the same reason. Criminal relationships, for example. Marriages based primarily on lust, greed, or addiction. In such relationships, the partners either ignore or accept the toxicity that initially joins them because the relationship is “useful” or even “personally enhancing” in some way.
But life evolves. And relationships evolve, also. Just like that chemical that was once useful but is now toxic, the roles that “emotional chemicals” play in building a relationship can change. Crime eventually generates distrust and disloyalty. Lust fades to boredom. Greed makes material wealth an overriding goal. And addiction isolates. It’s almost as though all relationships should come with a list of counterindications and side effects and acute exposure guidelines. Let’s call it the Formaldehyde Effect.
Of course, way back when life was gaining a foothold on the planet, there was no consciousness that recognized the long-term dangers of formaldehyde. No, formaldehyde was available, and it did the job of getting life off to a good start on a desolate and forbidding planet. An abiotic chemistry involving CH2O helped to form organic molecules, led to the formation of prokaryotic life and to eukaryotic life like you. Those initial life-forms could never have foreseen the later negative effects of formaldehyde on what it helped to form.
If formaldehyde is present in a substance, ignoring it won’t make that substance safer. If a toxic characteristic binds people in a relationship, ignoring it won’t make the relationship last. Formaldehyde “outgases” from composites. Everyone needs a chemistry lesson before entering a relationship with underlying toxicity, even if that toxic element is the reason the relationship began. Here’s a new topic to add to high school chemistry: Acute Exposure Guidelines. And when the teacher gives the lesson, he or she should have open bottles of formaldehyde in the lab to aid in the instruction.
*Amos, Jonathan. “Why does India’s air look different from space?” BBC News, 22 June 2018, online at https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44550091?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cg41ylwvwmxt/european-space-agency&link_location=live-reporting-story
**Than, Ker. Space “Poison Helped Start Life on Earth? Formaldehyde on asteroids may have delivered planet’s carbon.” National Geographic News, April 6, 2011, online at https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/04/110406-poison-life-earth-formaldehyde-carbon-carnegie-space-science/
***Numerous studies and many diagrams online
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