Formaldehyde, a toxin and carcinogen found in construction materials, carpets, car exhaust, cigarette smoke and even permanent press clothing, turns out to play an important role in the body — one that may explain why the chemical causes cancer.
In a study published this month in the journal Science, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom reported that formaldehyde is an inhibitor of DNA methylation, the enzymatic attachment of a...