Widely used in hospitals and healthcare settings in which nurses and midwives might work, formalin is a common and useful preservative. But its key ingredient is formaldehyde, a highly toxic and carcinogenic gas.
‘It’s definitely not something that people want to be exposed to,’ says ANMF (Vic Branch) OHS Officer Amber Blowes.
While formalin has well-established exposure standards, Amber and fellow Branch OHS Officer Megan Rosemergy have had many conversations with nurses and midwives who are not aware of the risks that formaldehyde poses.
‘They haven’t had adequate training,’ Amber says. ‘Or the handling systems and processes at their hospital are not adequate.’
Amber and Megan have encountered ‘a whole gamut of ways that the process of handling formalin goes’ in Victorian hospitals. Some hospitals have mechanised closed-loop systems that ensure no one has any exposure. ‘But at other hospitals,’ Amber says, ‘surgeons ask nurses to open vessels of formaldehyde at the start of a session and they sit there, off-gassing into the theatre throughout the surgery with everyone breathing it in.’
Part of the problem, Megan says, is that despite widespread usage in the healthcare system, chemical handling is an area of specialist knowledge. Even as an OHS officer, Megan wasn’t fully aware of the complexities until recently.
Additionally, she notes, the handling of chemicals like formalin might officially sit with ‘the facilities manager, or the property and infrastructure departments – so actually knowing who has oversight of it is an important question.’
From ANMF’s perspective, Megan adds that ‘we don’t yet have a clear understanding of how extensive the problem is because while there are Standards and Regulations there’s no review of the systems and what’s actually being done.’
Compounding this, Amber adds, is that WorkSafe Victoria primarily relies on employees to inform them about problems. Which in turn is reliant upon employees knowing there’s a problem. Too often it becomes a vicious cycle where employers don’t know, employees don’t know and WorkSafe doesn’t know.’
‘Formaldehyde is a skin irritant,’ Amber adds. ‘It can cause allergies. But it’s also a known carcinogen. So we’re talking about a long-term disease outcome. It’s not like when a manual handling injury happens and the negative outcome is immediately passed on to WorkSafe.’
So what should you do, and what can you do?
While both Amber and Megan emphasise that it is the employer’s responsibility to educate their workforce and provide and enforce proper control and handling processes, they admit that it will often fall to nurses and midwives to raise the issue in the first place.
‘It is not an employee’s responsibility to fix the problem,’ Amber says, ‘but unfortunately so few employees are being given the knowledge that one place we can start is by asking members: do you know that this is a problem?’
Once you are aware of the issues, you can request that your employer be doing more, she adds.
Because there are well-established exposure levels and handling standards, Megan notes that it’s relatively simple to manage, store and work with – as long as the knowledge is there and the procedures and protocols are in place.
‘There are systems available that mean people don’t actually ever have to be exposed to it at all. Indeed, it’s well controlled in some other countries.’
With the official safe exposure threshold for formaldehyde set to be lowered from 1 December 2026, Amber and Megan note that now is a good time for HSRs and other members to assess the situation in their workplaces and request improvements be implemented if required. If your processes and control measures are in place in advance, it will make compliance to the new standard simpler.
If you have concerns or queries about your workplace, contact the ANMF OHS team via Member Assistance.
