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Food Safety: Formaldehyde really isn't hyding, it's all around you.

By Steve Lombardi

Megan Roth and I have been kicking around the whole "formaldehyde, is it a poison issue." She’s young and has a long life to look forward to. She’s still got the whole raising kids thing to do; of course I’ve already ruined my kids so for me it’s more a curiosity about how to point out to my kids how not to ruin my grandkids. I love being a grandparent. You get to correct your kids about how you want your grandbabies raised relying on the experience you gained in, as they say, ruining their lives. Being a grandparent is really fun.

But what about the controversy surrounding formaldehyde and the Big C? Is there a controversy? My son Nick likes talking about his “ride” so I figure that’s got to be pretty important to a lot of America’s young adults. Man, a rides a ride is a ride. If it’s in your ride you’d better know it’s there, especially since many soccer mom vans have taken over as the home dining room.

Did you know the urethane foam in your car seats are built from formaldehyde?

But it’s not in my home, right? Did you know that “woods” used in your home and some of the furniture is bonded with resins based on this versatile product?

Okay but the garage is safe isn’t it? How about that plywood shelving in your garage? How about pressed wood furniture? Yup, phenol formaldehyde resins (PF) for plywood and particleboard are the largest market for formaldehyde.

Well my closet is off limits to formaldehyde, isn’t it? Even Spandex clothing has formaldehyde in it.

Well Megan is probably going out this weekend so she’ll be safe, right? Even that nail polish that Megan uses on Saturday night to have the look has some in it. Yes it does Megan; it helps your polish to dry quicker. Of course with repeat use it does have a tendency to yellow the nails. But let’s not go there because it might further ruin the economy.

So what about formaldehyde in my ride; is it there? Yup, there’s formaldehyde hiding in the car’s seats for starters. And then there are all those molded parts, including door panels, carpet, fabric, paint, dashboard, windshield washer fluid, tire cores, thermoplastics – heck you name it and it’s in it. Take a look at the Methanex mouse-over rooms interactive show link below. Don’t you just love that new-car smell? Ummm smell that? It’s so good and how it used to remind me of buying a new car. Now I think only of another billion dollar bail out, private Lear Jets and arrogance.

If you want to see a real neat website look at the Methanex site “Methanol in Our Lives” and there is a mouse-over rooms interactive show of all the stuff probably in your home with a good dose of this stuff in it.

Who’s testing formaldehyde and where can I learn about its uses? And oh yes that cancer thing is coming up again. We’ll get to that later but for now you should know that like the sugar wars the chemical wars over formaldehyde have players lined up on each side with, like Fox News their flavor of the truth; the good, the bad and the ugly. No, Megan I wasn’t talking about your nails, they look nice and yes you look ready to go out on the town.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on November 26, 2008 (boomark / email).