Formaldehyde and Glutaraldehyde

The price includes the vapor sampler, return shipping, analysis, and final report.

We use the NIOSH methods 2016 and 2532 to measure formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde together using a diffusive sampler badge.  Clip a sampler to your collar or place it in a central location to use as an area monitor. This method provides the most accurate measures of aldehydes available today, with a few caveats. All aldehyde samplers available today are sensitive to heat.  Thermal decomposition of the media can produce a background signal that's easily misintrepreted as being the aldehyde that we are measruing. Our diffusive badge samplers have a media blank built in for use in measuring this decomposition, so we can say if the sampler decomposed during shippment or use and we can corret the data for this decomposition.

Remember that formalin contains 10-15% methanol, which is also regulated by OSHA much like formaldehyde. Please see our alcohols page to measure your methanol exposure – the standard alcohols badge should work well for you.

Interestingly, OSHA recommends the measurement of formaldehyde using OSHA 52, the hydroxymethyl piperidine method. This Is the same method that we recommend for the measurement of acrolein. We'll gladly analyze your sample tubes if you are interested in measurement using this method but remember that it requires the use of the personal sampling pump. It would be interesting to compare NIOSH 2016 to OSHA 52 in a real work environment. Please contact us if you’re interested in this study.