Environmental and biological monitoring of formaldehyde inside a hospital setting: a combined approach to manage chemical risk in workplaces

Abstract

Background: The safety of healthcare workers exposed to formaldehyde remains a great matter of concern for healthcare management units. This work aimed at describing the results of a combined monitoring approach (environmental and biological) to manage occupational exposure to formaldehyde in a hospital setting. Design and Methods: Environmental monitoring of working spaces and biological monitoring of urinary formaldehyde in 16 exposed healthcare workers of the Anatomic Pathology Unit of a University Hospital in Southern Italy was performed on a four-year timescale (2016-2019). Results: Values of aero-dispersed formaldehyde identified were on average low; although workers' urinary formaldehyde levels were also minimal, the statistical analysis highlighted a slight weekly accumulation. Conclusions: Our data confirm that both environmental and biological monitoring are important to identify risk situations, in particular when values of hazardous compounds are below the accepted occupational exposure levels.

Keywords

• Biomonitoring
• environmental monitoring
• formaldehyde exposure
• health and safety
• occupational health practice