Area and Personal Exposure Levels to Formaldehyde and Its Variation among Undergraduate Students during Gross Anatomy Laboratory Practice

Formaldehyde emitted from the cadavers in Gross Anatomy Laboratory may fluctuate leading to a variation in exposure level of the participants during practice. This study aimed to evaluate the variation of formaldehyde levels and to determine the relationship between area and personal exposure concentration. Formaldehyde levels were measured in six sampling areas repeatedly during three types of study sessions; thoracic, abdominal, and brain and nerve study session. The highest formaldehyde level of area sampling (0.712 ppm) was found during the abdominal study session. Even though, formaldehyde levels were inconsistent but there were no statistical differences of areal formaldehyde concentrations among the sampling areas and the types of study sessions (p > 0.05). Personal samplings were conducted concurrently with 15 students. Average formaldehyde levels of the 15 students ranged from 0.317 to 0.912 ppm. Personal formaldehyde concentrations in the different types of study sessions were statistically different (p < 0.05). The relationship between personal and area formaldehyde concentrations of these 15 participants indicated that the correlation coefficients ranged from -0.529 to 0.600 with an average of 0.377. This result suggested there was a limitation in using area concentration to estimate personal exposure levels