Priority Substances List Assessment Report for Formaldehyde

Appendix A Search Strategies Employed for Identification of Relevant Data

Environmental assessment

Data relevant to the assessment of whether formaldehyde is "toxic" to the environment under CEPA 1999 were identified from original literature, existing review documents, published reference texts and on-line searches conducted between January and May 1996 of the following commercial and government databases: Aqualine (1990-1996), ASFA (Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts; 1996), BIOSIS (Biosciences Information Services; 1990-1996), CAB (Commonwealth Agriculture Bureaux; 1990-1996), CESARS (Chemical Evaluation Search and Retrieval System, Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Michigan Department of Natural Resources; 1996), Chemical Abstracts (Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, Ohio; 1990-1996), CHRIS (Chemical Hazard Release Information System; 1964-1985), Current Contents (Institute for Scientific Information; 1990-1992, 1996), ELIAS (Environmental Library Integrated Automated System, Environment Canada library; January 1996), Enviroline (R.R. Bowker Publishing Co.; November 1995 -June 1996), Environmental Abstracts (1975 -February 1996), Environmental Bibliography (Environmental Studies Institute, International Academy at Santa Barbara; 1990-1996), GEOREF (Geo Reference Information System, American Geological Institute; 1990-1996), HSDB (Hazardous Substances Data Bank, U.S. National Library of Medicine; 1990-1996), Life Sciences (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts; 1990-1996), NTIS (National Technical Information Service, U.S. Department of Commerce; 1990-1996), Pollution Abstracts (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, U.S. National Library of Medicine; 1990-1996), POLTOX (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, U.S. National Library of Medicine; 1990-1995), RTECS (Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances, U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; 1996), Toxline (U.S. National Library of Medicine; 1990-1996), TRI93 (Toxic Chemical Release Inventory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Toxic Substances; 1993), USEPA-ASTER (Assessment Tools for the Evaluation of Risk, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; up to December 21, 1994), WASTEINFO (Waste Management Information Bureau of the American Energy Agency; 1973 - September 1995) and Water Resources Abstracts (U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of the Interior; 1990-1996). A survey of Canadian industry was carried out under authority of Section 16 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) (Environment Canada, 1997b,c). Targeted companies with commercial activities involving more than 1000 kg of formaldehyde were required to provide information on uses, releases, environmental concentrations, effects or other data that were available to them for formaldehyde. Canadian monitoring data, unpublished reports from Canadian producers and users, and personal communications from experts in the field completed the information consulted in preparing this report. Reveal Alert was used to maintain an ongoing record of the current scientific literature pertaining to the potential environmental effects of formaldehyde. Data obtained after December 1999 were not considered in this assessment unless they were critical data received during the 60-day public review of the report (July 22 to September 20, 2000).

Health assessment

Data relevant to the assessment of the potential risks of formaldehyde to human health were identified through evaluation of existing review documents of the Department of National Health and Welfare (BCH, 1988), the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR, 1997), the World Health Organization (WHO, 1989), the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, 1995), as well as a review prepared under contract by BIBRA Toxicology International (BIBRA, 1994). To identify additional relevant toxicological data, literature searches on formaldehyde were conducted using the strategy of searching by its name or CAS registry number in the following databases: CCRIS (Chemical Carcinogenesis Research Information System, U.S. National Cancer Institute), DART (Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology, U.S. National Library of Medicine), EMIC (Environmental Mutagen Information Center database, Oak Ridge National Laboratory) and EMICBACK (backfile of EMIC), ETICBACK (backfile of Environmental Teratology Information Center database, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences), GENE-TOX (Genetic Toxicology, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), HSDB, IRIS (Integrated Risk Information System, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) and RTECS. Its name, registry number and major synonyms were searched in the ToxlinePlus (1985-1999) and Toxline (before 1985) databases. The CAS registry number was searched in the Toxlit (1981-1999) database. The EMBASE (on-line version of Excerpta Medica) database, for 1981-1999, was searched using the name, registry number and major synonyms, combined with a link to toxicological information. In addition to the above sources of information, numerous provincial and federal government officials and representatives of various industrial sectors were contacted between February and August of 1996 for data relevant to exposure and/or effects.