It is virtually everywhere.
This year, the Biden administration finally appeared to make some progress.
The agency said it made the decision because its estimate for myeloid leukemia was too uncertain to include.
© Charles O’Rear
One said the risk was even greater than the agencys estimate.
The real problem, she said, was cowardice.
It was kind of heartbreaking.
They have interviewed more than 50 experts and pored through thousands of pages of scientific studies and EPA records.
Theyve also reviewed the actions of the previous Trump administration and whats been disclosed about the next.
And Trumps last term as president shows how quickly and completely the efforts now underway might be stopped.
At the EPA, he appointed a key figure from the chemical industry who had previously defended formaldehyde.
The agency then quietly shelved a report on the chemicals toxicity.
It refused to enforce limits on formaldehyde released from wood products until a judge forced its hand.
Boydhas described formaldehydeas a sort of poster child for the EPAs inability to regulate chemicals.
The Biden administration was finally bringing some closure to that process, said Boyd.
But we have every reason to suspect that those efforts will now be revised.
And it will likely take years for the EPA to do anything on this.
Much of the formaldehyde outdoors is also spontaneously formed from other pollutants.
Its that its risk far exceeds the agencys own goals, sometimes by significant amounts.
(ProPublica isreleasing a lookup toolthat allows anyone in the country to understand their outdoor risk from formaldehyde.)
Even those alarming figures underestimate the true danger.
As the EPA admits, its cancer risk calculation fails to reflect the chances of developing myeloid leukemia.
As Mary Faltas knows, the diagnosis can upend a life.
Its like having a storm come through, she said recently.
Its gone, but now youre left with everything else to deal with.
It wasnt always clear shed survive.
There are two types of myeloid leukemia.
Too sick to work, she lost her job as a dental assistant.
Its almost always impossible to pinpoint a single cause for someones cancer.
And in that way, shes typical.
Nationwide, thats the average lifetime cancer risk from air pollution; formaldehyde accounts for most of it.
ProPublica will delve more into indoor risks, and how to guard against them, in the coming days.
He argued that formaldehyde didnt pose a significant risk to people.
Todhunter denied being influenced but resigned under pressure.
In 1991, under President George H.W.
But it quickly became clear that more protection was needed.
You want to seize that opportunity.
But in 2004, their work hit a roadblock.
The harms, meanwhile, continued to mount.
This time, another U.S. senator intervened.
But the EPA would not issue that next version for more than a decade.
For years afterward, the EPAs release of chemical assessments and its work on the formaldehyde assessment slowed.
They became completely cowardly, Jinot said.
They were shell-shocked and retreated.
The World Health Organizations arm that researches cancer had already concluded in 2006 that the chemical is a carcinogen.
The research presented formaldehyde as relatively innocuous.
The trade groups panel on formaldehyde also complained that regulation would be devastating for business.
The argument was undercut by one of the few limits the EPA did manage to put in place.
Under Trump, the agency did not implement the rule until acourt ordered it toin 2018.
But once the regulation was in effect, many companies complied with it.
Necessity bred invention, and furniture and wood products makers found glues and binders with no added formaldehyde.
Kochs subsidiary, Georgia-Pacific, made formaldehyde and many products that emit it.
(Georgia-Pacific has since sold its chemicals business to Bakelite Synthetics.)
Ethics rules require federal employees not to participate in matters affecting former clients for two years.
He signed his recusal paperwork the same daythe EPA killed the toxicity report.
Dunlap did not respond to requests for comment.
But the agency is required to address risks only if they are deemed unreasonable.
For many of those risks, the EPA said it wasnt certain they were unreasonable.
The EPA made the decision after employing a variety of unusual scientific strategies.
One involved outdoor air.
The EPA first estimated the amount of formaldehyde in the air near some of the countrys biggest polluters.
Just walking up the slight hill from her horse barn to her front door can leave her winded.
It feels like a gorilla is sitting on my chest, she said.
Under Biden, EPA scientists have been sharply divided over how to gauge all the dangers of formaldehyde.
Some employees throughout the agency have been working to strengthen the final health assessment expected later this month.
But they are fighting against immense outside pressure.
During the past four years, no fewer than 75 trade groups have pushed back against the EPAs findings.
This one feels next level.
The industrys fortunes have now shifted with Trumps election.
The EPA could simply change its reports on the chemicals health effects.
They can just say theyre reopening the risk assessment and take another look at it.
Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, saying, I dont know what the hell it is.
In his announcement, Trump said Zeldin would deliver deregulatory decisions to unleash the power of American businesses.
We are going to continue to see people get sick and die from this chemical.
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