Pollution Levels and Control Measures for Formaldehyde in Indoor Air after Decoration

Objectives To know the source of formaldehyde in indoor air after decoration and to analyze the possible causes and preventive measures.

Methods Twenty-four newly decorated households from two districts of Guiyang were divided into low, medium and high levels according to the grade of decoration with eight houses in each group.The synthetic wood-based boards pretreated with primer coat before decoration were selected as controls.The levels of formaldehyde in indoor air were determined by spectrophotometer in accordance with the "National Standard Method for Hygienic Examination of Formaldehyde in Air of Residential Areas"(GB/T16129-1995).

Results The range of formaldehyde in the low level decoration group was 0.049 ~ 0.17 mg/m³ with a median of 0.095 mg/m³, its control group was 0.019 ~ 0.073 mg/m³ with a median of 0.051 mg/m³ (P < 0.05); the range of formaldehyde in the medium level decoration group was 0.072 ~ 0.46 mg/m³ with a median of 0.24 mg/m³, its control group was 0.052 ~ 0.16 mg/m² with a median of 0.078 mg/m² (P < 0.05); the range of formaldehyde in the high level decoration group was 0.47 ~ 1.71 mg/m³ with a median of 0.87 mg/m³, its control group was 0.18 ~ 0.44 mg/m² with a median of 0.26 mg/m² (P < 0.05).

Conclusions The level of formaldehyde in the indoor air after decoration is mainly related to the amount of synthetic wood-based boards.In order to control the level of formaldehyde below the national standard limits, something must be done to control the amount and quality of plank stuff and to conduct a pretreatment of decoration material as well.