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Health risk assessment of exposure to ambient formaldehyde in carpet manufacturing industries

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Abstract

Formaldehyde is categorized as a definitive carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. To the best of our knowledge, no study has assessed the health risks of occupational exposure of workers in carpet manufacturing plants to formaldehyde. Therefore, this study assesses the health risks of the occupational exposure to formaldehyde of 67 male workers in carpet manufacturing plants in Iran in 2022. Exposure to formaldehyde was quantitatively determined after collecting personal exposure samples from the workers’ respiratory zone and spectrophotometric analysis based on method number 3500 of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. In the next step, the carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic risks based on personal exposure to formaldehyde were evaluated. Sensitivity analyses were employed using the Monte Carlo simulation method. The mean inhalation exposure of workers to formaldehyde was 0.636 mg m−3. The inhalation cancer risk value based on the integrated risk information system for formaldehyde was 4.06×10-4 ± 3.17×10−5 (mean ± standard deviation), which exceeded the value reported by the US Environmental Protection Agency. An unacceptable carcinogenic risk level was found in 75.6% of workers. The highest mean inhalation cancer risk was 6.74×10−4 (i.e., 6.74 additional cases per 10,000 employees exposed) was found in sizing post employees. The hazard quotient of formaldehyde was 0.311±0.024. The formaldehyde concentration had a considerable effect on the health risk. The findings of this study provide valuable scientific information that supports the development of future policies to enhance the health status of employees in carpet manufacturing plants.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the participation of the employees and managers of the carpet manufacturing plants in this study. Prashant Kumar acknowledges the support via the ‘Knowledge Transfer and Practical application of research on Indoor Air Quality (KTP-IAQ)’ project, which is funded by the University of Surrey’s Research England funding under the Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF) programme.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran (Grant number: 400187).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Occupational Health Engineering, School of Health, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran

    Amir Hossein Khoshakhlagh

  2. School of Public Health, College of Public Health, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Kai-Jen Chuang

  3. Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Kai-Jen Chuang

  4. Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK

    Prashant Kumar

Authors
  1. Amir Hossein Khoshakhlagh
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  2. Kai-Jen Chuang
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Contributions

Amir Hossein Khoshakhlagh: conceptualization, formal analysis, sample collection, project administration, methodology. Kai-Jen Chuang: writing — review and editing. Prashant Kumar: writing — review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amir Hossein Khoshakhlagh.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

Ethics approval for this study was granted by the Research Ethics Committee of Kashan University of Medical Sciences (KAUMS) (No: IR.KAUMS.NUHEPM.REC.1401.004).

Consent to participate

All of the subjects had full consent to participate in the current study.

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Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Responsible Editor: Lotfi Aleya

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Khoshakhlagh, A.H., Chuang, KJ. & Kumar, P. Health risk assessment of exposure to ambient formaldehyde in carpet manufacturing industries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 16386–16397 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23353-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23353-6

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