Formaldehyde Numbers Below Detection Level of Machinery

Tuesday, June 15, 2010 04:14 PM

Prince George, B.C.- The numbers are in. If there is any formaldehyde in the air recently sampled in the Fort George area, it is so miniscule that it is below detectable levels. The equipment used can detect formaldehyde at .0019 parts per million, or 2.3 micrograms per cubic meter.

If there was ay formaldehyde in the air when the sampling was done onMay 26th, it was below those "detectable levels". "That is not to say there isn't any formaldehyde in the air" says Dean Cherkas, Regional Manager of the Ministry of Environment's Prince George office, "There may be naturally occuring fomaldehyde in the air, but at the time of sampling, there was nothing that could be detected by the machinery we were using."

The results of the Ministry testing were echoed by the results of the hand held formaldehyde detector being used by representatives from the Millar Addition Coalition and the People's Action Committee for Healthy Air.

Cherkas says the sampling gave them and excellent baseline to be used for comparison when doing sampling in the future "I would like to do at least another three or four samples including some on air quality days."T

he following table is a summary of preliminary formaldehyde measurements following the most recent sampling event on May 26, 2010. For comparison purposes, monitoring results obtained by the Millar Addition Citizen’s Coalition (MACC) along with the People’s Action Committee for Healthy Air (PACHA) during the same period using a different type of sampler are also included. All sample results (including duplicate field tests and blanks) were below the method detection limits.

SUMMARY OF MOST RECENT 2010/2011 FORMALDEHYDE RESULTS Date/Time	Location	BC Action Level (1-hr)	BC Episode Level (1-hr)	Sampler	Sample Results
2010-05-26 13:38 – 14:38	End of 17 th Ave (Ft. George Park)	60 μg/m3	370 μg/m3	MOE	Below detectable (<0.0019 ppm or <2.3 μg/m3)
MACC/PACHA			Below detectable (Detection limit 0.01 ppm or 12.3 ug/m3)

The air sampling also tested for other aldehydes, here are the results:

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Posted on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 04:14 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: dcfluid on June 15 2010 5:28 PM

Well, Husky oil refinery was shut down for a turnaround the week of testing, and advance warning was given to everyone. with all industries running and covert testing in place will this result be different? Odds are yes...

Posted by: pgmatt on June 15 2010 7:58 PM

Def a conspiracy. I think it was the Liberals fault.

Posted by: Eagleone on June 15 2010 8:28 PM

It was obvious they would get this result. dcfluid is right... advance warning for Husky and you will never get a true measurement for a base line.

Posted by: Denaljo on June 15 2010 10:37 PM

One of Canfors boilers was offline as well as Husky on a big shutdown.

Posted by: REALIST on June 16 2010 10:33 AM

Thanks for the advanced warning..worked just as planned guys. Now if they'll just buy this we can get back to business as usual and our buddies the BC Liberals can complain about wasting money to strengthen the image. (there you go pgmatt the bclieberals are involved).

Posted by: swingline on June 16 2010 12:09 PM

I don't get it... isn't it a GOOD thing to get a baseline/control measurement when nothing's going on? Then on an air advisory day, do another test. Then you have the baseline data to compare to. What's the big conspiracy?

Posted by: gus on June 16 2010 2:46 PM

It is a good thing. However, the four controversial readings were on odour days. So we still have no idea of whether those days have formaldehyde in the air or not or whether the readings were an anomaly.

It's like taking a reading of PM2.5 on good venting days versus after a day or two of an inversion when PM2.5 remains in the air rather than being blown out of the bowl. You get to know the obvious on the good venting days, but you do not get to know how bad the conditions get during inversion days.