Following a request from the review committee for Schedule A of the Regulation respecting occupational health and safety, and following a preliminary feasibility study, this project aimed to evaluate the health and socioeconomic impacts of lowering the current permissible exposure value of 2 ppm ceiling to one of the values of 1.0, 0.75 or 0.3 ppm ceiling or weighted for eight hours. The authors evaluated the gains for workers' health and the costs and economic advantages for companies. To achieve this, they adopted a mixed approach that combined expertise and a classic industrial hygiene approach, in order to produce a matrix linking economic activity sectors and formaldehyde exposure concentrations. The addition of data on workstations and emission sources made it possible to consolidate the results obtained by sector, manpower and distribution of exposed workers. This project has also resulted in the acquisition of knowledge on a large number of economic activity sectors in Québec as well as expertise on the evaluation of occupational health and safety impacts. The results are published by industrial sector, and overall, in 13 publications, including the comprehensive report.
