Formaldehyde
metabolic degradation.
Ecotoxicity
Releases into the environment are likely to occur during production and processing as intermediate
as well as from use of products containing the substance.
Aquatic Effects
Distribution modelling estimates water to be the main target compartment for formaldehyde. The
most sensitive organism in an valid acute aquatic toxicity test was Daphnia pulex with an EC50 (48
h) of 5.8 mg/l. For the derivation of the PNECaqua an assessment factor of 1000 is applied on this
value resulting in a PNECaqua of 5.8 g/l.n. (EC50 - half maximal effective concentration; PNEC -
Predicted No Effect Concentration)
Terrestrial Effects
Nematodes in peat were killed by application of formalin (37 % formaldehyde solution) at 179
ml/m³ (Lockhart 1972). Pollen grains of Lilium longiflorum which had been sown in a straight line
on a culture medium were exposed separately to various concentrations of injurious gases. A 5 h
annaabi.ee 
