"NAS Reviewers Slam EPA's Formaldehyde Assessment"

"U.S. EPA's long-awaited study of formaldehyde's toxicity got panned today by a National Academy of Sciences' panel that sharply disagreed with the agency's conclusions and declared the effort in need of 'substantial revision.'

The panel convened by the academy's National Research Council is likely to further delay EPA efforts to finalize a 12-year-old effort to assess risks posed by formaldehyde, a widely used residential construction material.

NAS said EPA's draft assessment, which was issued last June and concludes that the chemical is a human carcinogen, fails to support its conclusion that formaldehyde causes respiratory cancers, leukemia and several other health problems, including asthma.

The panel also said EPA 'overstated' its conclusion that formaldehyde damages the nervous system and questioned the agency's linking formaldehyde to reproductive effects such as infertility in women."

Jeremy P. Jacobs reports for Greenwire April 8, 2011.

SEE ALSO:

"EPA Formaldehyde Findings Called Into Question by Independent Review" (New Orleans Times-Picayune)

"How Senator Vitter Battled the EPA Over Formaldehyde's Link to Cancer" (ProPublica)

"David Vitter Fights for Formaldehyde" (ProPublica)

"Sen. David Vitter (R-Formaldehyde)" (Mother Jones)

"Louisiana Democrats Use Formaldehyde Worries Against Vitter" (The Hill)