WeWork says it found cancer-causing chemical in its phone booths

Matt Levine today:

"I don’t understand what is happening here. Did WeWork founder Adam Neumann disturb a mummy and trigger an ancient curse? Was a WeWork built on a haunted graveyard, unleashing powerful dark energies and also elevated levels of formaldehyde? How do you have such a relentless parade of negative financial news and then find out that your phone booths cause cancer? “Our phone booths might cause cancer” was not an IPO risk factor.[1] Nobody had “phone booths cause cancer” on their WeWork Disaster Bingo cards."

formaldehyde is, incidentally, my absolute least favorite chemical to work with.

Formailin (37% formaldehyde solution) is still used for tissue preservation and it absolutely reeks to high heaven. The stink clings to my clothes, too. A good respirator helps, but it can only do so much.

Normally you have to have a few sulfoxide bonds in things to make them epically stinky, but formaldehyde finds a way to do without and still offend.

Isn't formaldehyde used in basically every composite wood product (plywood, MDF, particleboard, etc)? Confined spaces with lots of new composite wood (see RV's, boats, trailers, temporary classrooms) always stink for quite some time until the offgassing subsides.