Bronchial provocation studies on 15 workers occupationally exposed to formaldehyde are described. The results show that formaldehyde exposure can cause asthmatic reactions, and suggest that these are sometimes due to hypersensitivity and sometimes to a direct irritant effect. Three workers had classical occupational asthma caused by formaldehyde fumes, which was likely to be due to hypersensiti...

In this presented work, we describe the development and characterization of a new, environmentally friendly adhesive derived from cornstarch and tannins. The production of wood composites mainly relies on the petrochemical-based and formaldehyde-based adhesives such as urea formaldehyde (UF), phenol formaldehyde (PF) and melamine urea formaldehyde (MUF), which can generate under certain conditi...

Low mole ratio urea-melamine-formaldehyde (UMF) resins synthesized with 2.5% and 5.0% melamine levels added at the beginning, middle, and end points of the first alkaline step of the typical urea-formaldehyde (UF) resin synthesis procedure were compared with typical UMF resins synthesized with melamine additions made at the final alkaline step. Various resin analysis, particleboard preparation,...

Life-cycle inventory (LCI) data are needed to scientifically document the environmental performance of formaldehyde-based resins used in the manufacture of wood composite products. The resin data are needed by others to conduct LCI studies of wood composites when providing performance data for applications as governed by the many green building standards, purchasing guidelines, and energy and c...