Seasonal and diurnal patterns of outdoor formaldehyde and impacts on indoor environments and health

Formaldehyde is concerned as an important indoor carcinogen. While contribution of outdoor formaldehyde to indoor concentration is recognized, long-term measurement about its impact on indoor environments remain missing. We measured both outdoor and indoor formaldehyde concentrations for over one year in Nanjing (east-central China) and calculated the outdoor/indoor (O/I) ratios. 64.8% of the measured outdoor concentration have exceeded the chronic reference exposure criteria of 0.009 mg/m(3) set by Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). The outdoor concentration was highest in summer with median value of 0.020 mg/m(3) and lowest in spring with median value of 0.009 mg/m(3). Diurnally, outdoor formaldehyde concentration was highest at noon with median value of 0.013 mg/m(3) and lowest at night with median value of 0.01 mg/m(3). Health analysis revealed that cancer risk by exposure to this concentration level is 1.6 x 10(-4), higher than threshold limit of 10(-6). In addition, the median O/I ratios are 0.18 and 0.27 in two offices, indicating that outdoor formaldehyde contributes to indoor concentrations by about one quarter. The change of O/I ratio also shows a similar seasonal and diurnal trend as outdoor concentrations (highest in the summer in a year and at noon in a day). Outdoor formaldehyde concentration is therefore not negligible as a contributor to indoor concentration, especially as indoor concentration limit gets continuously lowered. This factor should be taken into account in indoor air and maintenance.