One academic year laboratory and student breathing zone formaldehyde level, measured by gas-piston hand pump at gross anatomy laboratory, Siriraj Hospital, Thailand

This study used a formaldehyde detector tube with a gas-piston hand pump to assess ceiling levels of student breathing zone and gross laboratory environment across the 2018 academic year. The room dimension was 28.6 x 55.48 x 5.5 m. It contained 90 cadavers, each placed on a hinged cover table. We measured before and during nine body region dissections. There was a significant difference (p < 0.01) between student exposure and laboratory environment levels. The highest level was student exposure during body wall dissection (2.7 ppm), the first laboratory; students may accidentally enter body cavities. The latter two were in abdominal (1.85 ppm) and lower limb dissections (1.49 ppm). The three highest environment levels were in different regions; spinal cord removal (1.13 ppm), lower limb (0.72 ppm), and thorax (0.71 ppm) dissection. Only the perineum environment level (0.09 ppm) was below the NIOSH ceiling level (0.1 ppm), which may result from the table covers that had been opened for 2 weeks before measurement. This study finding signified the importance of student personal exposure monitoring and encouraged the academic year measurement. Because each laboratory has unique factors, those affect formaldehyde levels; dissection steps, dissection table design, cadaver storage protocol, and heating-ventilation-air conditioning system performance, for instance.