Office formaldehyde levels exceeding the standard can easily cause dizziness, vomiting and dry eyes

According to a July 17 report by Yangcheng Evening News, Feifei (pseudonym), who works at Guangzhou Dayang Education Technology Co., Ltd., was deeply troubled by the renovation smell in the new office.

On July 9, the white-collar worker Feifei moved into the company's new office on the 6th floor of Building 23, Tian'an Energy-Saving Science and Technology Park in Panyu District. The 400-sq-m office can accommodate more than 90 people.

"Renovation of the new office only started at the end of April. The company had promised that everyone would move in together in mid-July after the renovation was fully completed, but in early July, before the new office was even finished, all employees were required to move there and start working," Feifei said. On the first day of moving into the new office, workers could still be seen painting and installing security doors.

A pungent smell hit you as soon as you walked into the office. After the first day of working in the new office, Feifei personally saw a female colleague run to the restroom to vomit. Feifei also experienced dry, painful eyes and dizziness. "As soon as I enter the office, I feel dizzy and have a sore throat, and I can't concentrate on my work."

To cope, many employees could only wear masks to work.

Feifei's colleague Zhiqiang (pseudonym) was also greatly troubled by this, and even considered resigning.

Zhiqiang said that as soon as everyone moved into the office on Monday, most people felt headaches. Zhiqiang felt a headache, a sore throat, dry eyes, and even some chest tightness. The next day, because more air purifiers were added, it felt slightly better, but on the third day he again felt somewhat weak.

They also reported the situation to their leaders, but apart from adding more purifiers and tea leaves, the leaders just told everyone to "get used to it." Zhiqiang said that if the situation remains this bad, he will consider resigning, but hopes the company can provide some compensation.

For an office with formaldehyde levels exceeding the standard, why is the effect not obvious after placing tea leaves and air purifiers?

The reason is that tea leaves and air purifiers simply cannot remove formaldehyde. Placing tea leaves is like "plugging one's ears while stealing a bell" - it merely uses the smell of tea to mask the irritating odor of formaldehyde. The main function of an air purifier is to reduce particulate matter in the air, and its effect on removing formaldehyde is negligible.

And with a casual search on Weibo, you can see netizens' various worries, complaints and helplessness about office formaldehyde levels exceeding the standard.

The dangers of formaldehyde are well known. Faced with the "toxic gas" in offices, how can the problem of excessive formaldehyde levels in offices be solved?

01

Managers should raise their legal awareness

Articles 53 and 54 of the Labor Law stipulate that "labor safety and health facilities must meet the standards prescribed by the state" and that "employers must provide workers with labor safety and health conditions and necessary labor protection articles that meet state regulations." If an employer violates the above provisions, it must bear the relevant responsibility.

02

Understand the correct methods for removing formaldehyde

In the news, we can see that employers placed tea leaves and purifiers to deal with formaldehyde pollution, but unfortunately they fell into misunderstandings about formaldehyde removal. In fact, the most effective ways to remove formaldehyde are ventilation and hiring a professional formaldehyde treatment company. At present, professional formaldehyde removal companies on the market, including Quanfen, have very mature experience in dealing with office formaldehyde pollution.