Formaldehyde WES 2010 [143 KB PDF] - Business.govt.nz

INFORMATION SHEET
formaldehyde workplace exposure standard
PLA 11590.2 DEC 10
In December 2010, the Department of Labour made changes
to the Workplace Exposure Standard (WES) for formaldehyde.
The existing WES for formaldehyde is:
• Ceiling 1ppm
Two new WES for formaldehyde apply in addition to the
existing WES-Ceiling:
• 0.5ppm WES-TWA (eight hour shifts)
• 0.33ppm WES-TWA (12 hour shifts)
The new WES will be implemented over a one-year period,
commencing 13th December 2010. This means that employers
and people in charge of workplaces have one year to make any
changes necessary to ensure that no person is exposed to a
concentration of formaldehyde exceeding the WES.
At this stage, these WES are guideline values until the
Environmental Risk Management Authority has formally
adopted them as controls under the Hazardous Substances
and New Organisms Act 1996. At this point, the Authority will
determine whether or not the WES should be guidelines only.
What is a Workplace Exposure Standard?
There are, in fact, a number of Workplace Exposure
Standards (WES), designed for exposures over various time
periods. In assigning the WES, defining a level that will achieve
freedom from adverse effects is the major consideration.
In the case of formaldehyde, we use the following values:
1. Time Weighted Average (TWA) – this means an average
exposure of up to 0.5ppm (parts per million) formaldehyde
over an eight-hour work day, or 0.33ppm over a 12-hour
work day is permissible without experiencing poor health
effects.
2. Ceiling – the formaldehyde concentration should never
exceed 1ppm during any part of the working day.
How are WES used in the workplace?
WES are used in relation to monitoring hazardous substances
in the workplace environment. Special monitoring equipment
is needed to measure airborne substances in the workplace
(called air sampling). The equipment can cost a lot of money,
and you need specialist training in how to take representative
samples and make a correct analysis. In most workplaces, air
sampling is carried out by occupational hygienists or people
with similar qualifications and experience.
In all instances WES relate to exposure that has been
measured by personal monitoring that uses methods that
gather air samples from the workers’ breathing zones. The
objective of personal monitoring is to assess the air a worker
is breathing, as it is the workers’ exposure that the WES is
concerned with.
Section 11 of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992
requires employers to provide the monitoring results to the
workers concerned.
Why did the Department of Labour change the WES for
formaldehyde?
The formaldehyde WES-TWA was added because:
• It is difficult to measure peak formaldehyde exposures using
sampling methods commonly used in New Zealand, and
• the Ceiling limit effectively allowed a time-weighted
average exposure of up to 0.99ppm over an eight-hour
period. The current research shows that this level would
not be an acceptable exposure over this period of time.
The addition of the TWAs means that more may have to be
done in the workplace to reduce the level of worker exposure
to this substance.
What are the health effects of formaldehyde
exposure?
Formaldehyde can cause acute (short term) and chronic (long
term) health effects. Acute effects may include sensory
irritation of the eyes, nose and throat.
Formaldehyde is a skin irritant and a strong skin sensitiser.
This means that once a person is sensitised, further exposure
may cause intense responses, even at low concentrations.
Long term (chronic) exposure to formaldehyde may result in
changes to the cells it regularly comes into contact with, such
as inside the nose.
Formaldehyde is classified as a confirmed carcinogen, or
cancer-causing agent, in New Zealand.
What occupations are linked to formaldehyde
exposure?
Formaldehyde occurs naturally in the environment, and it is
also produced (in low levels) in the body during metabolism. It
is also produced during combustion.
Occupationally, people are usually exposed to formaldehyde by
breathing in formaldehyde vapours, although formaldehyde is
also present in formalin, a liquid preservative.
Formaldehyde is likely to be used in the following occupations:
• Laboratory work
• Mortuaries and funeral homes
• Urea-formaldehyde insulation production
• Pressed wood products including panel and board
manufacturing
• Resin manufacturing

• Isocyanate paint and printing ink manufacturing
• Mould product casting
• Medical preservatives
• Motor vehicle manufacturing
• Textile manufacturing
• Natural gas and petroleum production.
What can be done to lower the amount of hazardous
substances in the workplace air?
There are a number of ways to lower hazardous substances in
the air, but it depends on a number of factors, including the
work process, the equipment used and the work environment.
Here are some general examples of what could be done to
lower worker exposure to hazardous substances:
• Substitute the hazardous substance for a less hazardous
product;
• Install extraction ventilation to take the air containing the
hazardous substance away from the workers;
• Enclose manufacturing processes so that all of the work
involving the hazardous substance is conducted in a separate
room or chamber that no-one normally works in; and
• ONLY as a last resort; or as an interim measure while
long-term solutions are introduced: use personal
protective clothing and equipment (PPE) to further
reduce worker exposure.
Why can’t we just rely on PPE to protect us from harm?
The Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 places duties
on employers to eliminate all significant hazards in the
workplace to ensure the safest working environment.
But in a lot of cases, we need to work with certain machines,
chemicals and hazardous processes in order to get the job
done. If the hazards cannot be eliminated, the employer is
required to isolate the hazards from the workers.
Eliminating and isolating hazards can be initially expensive, and
can take some time to develop. But they are the preferred
method of hazard management, and make good business
sense in the long term.
If some hazards cannot be eliminated or isolated, the employer
must minimise employee exposure. Minimisation may include
extraction ventilation, job rotation and using PPE.
Personal protective clothing and equipment may seem like
the cheapest way to solve a hazardous substance exposure
problem, but in most cases, it ends up costing the employer
more money, and may place the worker at risk.
Common respiratory protection does not provide 100%
protection against the substance.
Other issues with relying upon PPE as the sole means of safety
management include:
• Poorly maintained PPE (e.g. holes in gloves, unchanged
mask filters) increases worker exposure
• People sometimes forget to wear the PPE
• People can find it uncomfortable to wear the PPE and
may take the risk of removing it in a hazardous work
environment
• Consumable PPE can cost a lot of money to replace if
being used as a long-term or permanent control
• The PPE may not provide protection against a large surge
of a hazardous substance in the event of an accident
• The workplace environment has to be regularly monitored
to check that hazardous substances are still within safe
levels.
In your workplace, the principles for dealing with hazardous
substance exposure must be to:
ELIMINATE, ISOLATE, MINIMISE.
Further sources of information:
• Workplace Exposure Standards effective from 2010
• The Approved Code of Practice for the Management of
Substances Hazardous to Health in a Place of Work
Contact the Department of Labour on 0800 20 90 20
or visit www.dol.govt.nz.
The Department of Labour takes no responsibility for the results of any
actions taken on the basis of this information, or for any errors or omissions.
www.dol.govt.nz 0800 20 90 20