ESTIMATION OF STUDENTS EXPOSURE TO FORMALDEHYDE IN ANATOMY ROOM IN AHWAZ UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES

The aim of this research was estimation of short-term exposure to formaldehyde (CH2O) and comparison with standard of recommended exposure limit in the medicine students at anatomy room in Ahwaz University of Medical Sciences.Th level of exposure to CH2O was measured according to NIOSH Manual of Sampling and Analytical Method number 3500. One hundred air samples were collected during environmental and personal sampling. The amount of absorption of samples was absorption determined by method of chromotropic acid with visible spectrophotometric at 580 nm wavelength. The concentrations of samples were extrapolated from standard diagram. The results showed that, the mean value of environmental concentration of CH2O was 0.414 ppm. (ranged from 0.29 to 0.52) and the mean value of personal breathing zone concentration of CH2O was 0.568 ppm (ranged from 0.43 to 0.67). The amount of short-term exposure to CH2O exceeded that of the REL-ceiling, which equaled to 0.1 ppm recommended by the NIOSH. The exposure was medial compared to classification by NIOSH (0.1-1 ppm). The results obtained from this study showed that, the status of distribution of environmental and personal concentration of CH2O were uniform during Saturday, Monday and Wednesday, and differences were not significant. Furthermore, the amount of personal exposures were significantly increased compared with environmental exposures (P<0.05). The results obtained from this research revealed the requirement for designing, manufacturing, testing and fitting of a portable exhaust local ventilation system in the anatomy room of this university.