Description
Book SynopsisFormaldehyde is virtually ubiquitous in the modern environment due to its cost-effective nature, its use in resin formation, and its preservative properties. Though formaldehyde is necessary for many products and processes important to the world’s economy, this economic dependence on formaldehyde comes at a cost to public health. Growth and consequent industrialization rely heavily on formaldehyde use. New buildings—residences, public places, and offices—are not only built with timber preserved by formaldehyde, but they are also furnished with wood, wool, and textile products that contain formaldehyde. The general population faces environmental exposure from indoor and outdoor air pollution, food, and even medicine. Scientific inquiry into formaldehyde exposure has grown in response. This book consolidates the new and established body of formaldehyde research in the scholarly community, focusing on exposure, genotoxicity, and adverse health outcomes. Through this resource, we hope to increase awareness of the broad range of health effects posed by formaldehyde exposure, and to encourage interdisciplinary interest, as well as research, into this pervasive compound—especially in the United States and China, where formaldehyde production and usage is high. This book will be useful to researchers of environmental and occupational exposure, students, and government regulators and anyone exposed to formaldehyde in the workplace and/or at home.
Trade ReviewFormaldehyde is pretty much everywhere; from the cells in our body, to the air we breathe to a galaxy far, far away. This ubiquitous compound pervades the world (and the universe) as we know it. Formaldehyde is a gas, but you probably know it in its dissolved form as a formalin solution that is used to preserve the dead in embalming and biological specimens in museum archives and biology labs. As a gas, you may have had the misfortune to encounter it in cigarette smoke, as it escapes from materials used to build a new home or office building, such as hardwood flooring or particle board. If you were a survivor of the disastrous Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, you may have been housed in a trailer emitting unhealthy levels of formaldehyde. Its multiple uses, however, cannot be denied. Indeed, the first synthetic plastic ever made, Bakelite, developed by the Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland in Yonkers, New York, in 1907, was formed from a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. This discovery led to the plastics revolution and the rise of modernity after the Second World War. Formaldehyde is also a known human carcinogen, a cancer-causing agent, although the types of cancer it causes remain controversial. Professor Luoping Zhang has contributed a great deal to our scientific understanding as to how formaldehyde causes cancer, especially human leukemia. She was the lead author on a scientific paper in 2010, which has become known even to members of Congress as “the Zhang Study”. It showed that workers exposed to formaldehyde had significantly elevated levels of leukemia-specific chromosome changes in their myeloid blood progenitor cells, from which leukemia can develop. This was a landmark study of great importance in our understanding of formaldehyde carcinogenicity. I have known Professor Zhang since I served on her dissertation committee in 1990. After completing her Ph.D. she joined my laboratory and quickly became a key player. She was largely responsible for our successful collection of biospecimens from of Chinese workers exposed to benzene and butadiene from the early 1990s. She has conducted many studies in China since then and became strongly interested in the health effects of formaldehyde exposure after we collected biospecimens for the above-mentioned study into the late 2000s. Since then she has made formaldehyde her major subject of academic research and is a world-renowned expert on this compound. She has published original studies in human populations, studies in experimental animals and cell cultures, meta-analyses and reviews on formaldehyde toxicity and carcinogenesis. Her academic journey has culminated in the publication of this highly informative book that is certain to be methodically researched and put together with great enthusiasm. These are qualities Professor Zhang brings to all her endeavors. Few people I have known have the honesty, drive and intelligence that Professor Zhang demonstrates in abundance. Enjoy her book! -- Martyn T. Smith,Professor of Toxicology and Kenneth and Marjorie Kaiser Chair of Cancer Epidemiology Director, Superfund Research Program and Deputy Director, Koret Institute of Precision Prevention, Division of Environmental Health Sciences School of Public Health University of California, Berkeley
Although this book is aimed specifically at toxicologists it is likely to have a much wider appeal, ranging from flat pack manufacturers to funeral directors! The book has several appendices, the first being a list of abbreviations and the second a glossary of medical terms. Both are of great utility and are followed by an excellent index. Overall, this is an excellent book covering a wide range of subjects. -- Edward R. Adlard, Burton, UK * Chromatographia, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10337-018-3576-3 *
Table of ContentsIntroduction to Formaldehyde; Formaldehyde Exposure, Regulation, and Metabolism; Formaldehyde Exposure in China; General Toxicity of Formaldehyde; Formaldehyde Carcinogenesis; Formaldehyde Exposure and Leukemia Risk; Potential Mechanisms of Formaldehyde-Induced Leukemia; Formaldehyde Induced Leukemia-Specific Chromosomal Aneuploidy; Formaldehyde-Associated Brain Tumors; Formaldehyde-Associated Neurodegenerative Diseases; Formaldehyde Toxicity in Children; Reproductive and Developmental Toxicity of Formaldehyde Exposure in Humans; Reproductive and Developmental Toxicity of Formaldehyde Exposure in Animals; Mechanisms of Action for Formaldehyde-Induced Reproductive and Developmental Toxicity; Conclusions and Future Directions
