• Formaldehyde is a substance so toxic that were it
to make up just one part per billion of air itself, it
would have exceeded the lifetime chronic
exposure level, determined by the EPA,
• as set forth in its draft Toxicological Review of
Formaldehyde Inhalation Assessment Report, of
June 2010
• Yet more than 6 ½ lbs of the material is
manufactured each year for every man, woman
and child on the planet and placed into
thousands of products which off-gas toxic fumes
into the air.
• So that almost every building has unsafe levels of
formaldehyde.
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2
3
• And remove formaldehyde.
• How?
• When formaldehyde comes in contact with
water it forms methylene glycol.
• waterwater it forms methylene glycol
• So if we had a wet scrubber within a building
• So if formaldehyde laden air passes through a
wet scrubber formaldehyde is removed from
the air.
4
• Further, root microbes in a phytofilter then digest formaldehyde as
proven
• In a $450,000 3 year study* where a phytofilter was installed in a
building on the Syracuse Campus, and where it was found that
• “Seven (7) bacterial species from the botanical filter system using
DNA sequencing were identified,
• including Arthrobacter aurescens TC1, Arthrobacter oxydans,
Leifsonia xyli subsp. xyli str. CTCB07, Bacillus cereus, A. aurescens,
Pseudomonas putida, and Bacillus spp [29] and
• Degradation of formaldehyde solution by individual species was
conducted, with the result that
• the maximum reduction rate was 86.2% after 24 hours, by A.
aurescens TC1 [29].
• Therefore, as long as there are sufficient carbon sources
(formaldehyde or VOCs) in the air passing through the bed, the
microorganisms living in the sorbent bed will degrade them.
• Moreover, the microorganisms that are responsible for the
degradation can quickly reactivate the carbon particle so that it
need not be replaced, unlike the typical carbon filters used for air
cleaning which need to be replaced every three-to-six months”.
*New York Energy Research & Development Authority, Air Cleaning Technologies For Indoor Air Cleaning (ACT-IAQ):
Growing Fresh and Clean Air, Final Report December 2010, Section 4-8