Our chemical safety system is an outdated mess — and for years, the failure of the government to act on formaldehyde was proof positive of that fact.

Formaldehyde is an important industrial chemical widely used to manufacture building products and in embalming fluid. It‘s also an extremely nasty substance that can cause irritation in the eyes and breathing problems in human beings at elevated levels (elevated being more than 0.1 parts per million). It has been shown to increase cancer risk in animals, and has long been suspected to cause cancer in human beings.