Prediction of formaldehyde emission from wood-based panel furniture in different indoor environments and human health risk assessment

Wood-based panel furniture is the primary source of indoor formaldehyde emissions. However, limited studies have investigated its release characteristics under different geometries of furniture systems and associated human health risks. In this study, formaldehyde release behavior in four typical functional indoor settings was analyzed accounting for multisource and multidimensional furniture-driven processes, and human exposure as well as carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks were systematically evaluated. A cylindrical mass transfer model was developed, where key release parameters were determined from environmental chamber experiments. Numerical simulations of cylindrical and rectangular furniture geometries were performed to analyze formaldehyde concentration dynamics under periodic ventilation and the influence of geometry on emission behavior. It was found that the rectangular prism panel showed higher initial emission rates but faster later-stage concentration decay than cylindrical panel under strictly identical volume and height conditions. Additionally, the formaldehyde concentration with closed windows is approximately 21-fold higher compared with ventilated conditions at 600 h. The indoor steady-state formaldehyde concentration was determined using a multi-source coupled mass transfer model, which was further applied in the risk assessment, showing that inhalation exposure is approximately 216 times that of dermal exposure. Furthermore, the health risk assessment indicated that non-carcinogenic risks remained acceptable across all scenarios, while carcinogenic risks showed scenario-dependent variations due to differences in formaldehyde exposure conditions. These findings provide a scientific basis for the development of improved indoor air quality management strategies for formaldehyde mitigation.